IMPROVEMENT

Experts say the acceptance of public bicycles in Hangzhou is closely associated with the city scale and scenery.

"Hangzhou, a plain area city, is far smaller in downtown size and population than Beijing and Shanghai. This makes it feasible and realistic for people to ride bicycles. People are also willing to ride bicycles in this scenic city of rich cultural relics and with an admirable climate," said Gong Weibin, professor with the National School of Administration.

The idea of a bicycle-leasing service was borrowed from Paris.

In April 2008, HPTC and Hangzhou Public Transport Advertising Co. Ltd. jointly invested 5 million yuan to set up a fully state-owned Hangzhou Public Bicycle Transport Service Development Co. Ltd (HPBTSD). HPBTSD is responsible for buying bicycles, setting out service outlets, and employing staff. It independently developed the country's first information management system for public bicycle leasing service, and also bicycle locking apparatuses.

Over the past year, HPBTSD has made three major updates to improve its performance, according to demands and proposals from residents and tourists, said Tao Xuejun, deputy general manager of HPBTSD. The issues include such problems as hard-to-hire bicycles in morning rush hours and hard to find out outlets to return bicycles near to users' destinations.

"In response to the proposals, we have simplified the mode of hiring and returning bicycles," said Tao, citing an example of making the service more convenient.

When the service was first introduced last May, Tao said, users hired public bicycles by brushing their IC cards or Hangzhou citizen cards at POS machines at service outlets, with the help of service staff. The POS machines would draw in 200 yuan deposits. Users brushed their cards at POS machines again, with staff workers, when they returned bicycles at any of the service outlets. The deposits were fully returned.

Since last July, HPBTSD simplified the procedure. A POS machine is imbedded in a bicycle instead of kept at the service outlets. Users would brush their cards by themselves to take away bicycles. When they return bicycles, they simply push the bicycles into the stands, fix them up and brush the cards by themselves to get everything done.

"Our leasing system is more convenient than that in Europe," said Lu Zhihong. "The leasing system in Paris works with the banking system. It takes about five minutes to hire and return a bicycle. Ours takes less than one minute."

HPBTSD extended service hours, from the original 6:30-20:00 to 6:00-21:00 on April 1, and added more 24-hour service outlets. Since May 1, the city will add seven 24-hour service outlets to the existing eight.

According to Lu Zhihong, so far, no public bicycles have been stolen. Only about 0.5 percent bicycles are damaged slightly in a year.

"This is partly attributed to the advanced facilities guarding against thefts. Strict management also plays a crucial role," said Lu.

Those people who neither return bicycles nor report a bicycle loss within 24 hours, will be charged 10 yuan each day compensation from the deposit in the cards, in addition to normal fees that should have been collected. These users and their IC cards will be put on a blacklist of credibility and will lose the right to hire public bicycles for life.

Huang Zhiyao said "As a government-conducted public service, we cannot run the service fully in line with market rules. The government needs to play a role in the process."

But apparently, it will not do to simply rely on funds from the government to maintain bicycles and pay salaries to staff workers. Rents from the use of bicycles are not enough either to support long-term operation.

According to Tao Xuejun, more than 80 percent of the bicycles have been used for free since last May. The rents, about 200,000-300,000 yuan each month, are utterly inadequate compared with about 1.5 million yuan to run the project per month.

"We have found out a way to make money - put adverts on the bicycles and public bicycle service outlets," said Tao.

"As we keep expanding our service outlets, we will have more resources to tap. We are highly likely to balance incomes and expenses in the long run," said Tao.

Besides, Hangzhou is planning to set up a public bicycle technology development company, to protect and promote its technologies from the public bicycle service.

To date, Beijing and Shanghai, together with Zhengzhou, Jinan, Wuhan, Changzhou and Sanya, are also stepping up efforts to build their own public bicycle systems in response to growing energy prices, environment protection requirements and traffic jams.

"Chinese cities are improving their management capacities. Many places have similar conditions to ours to promote the public bicycle service. This creates a good business opportunity for us," said Huang Zhiyao.

(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2009)