Wuhan Cracks Down on Shared Bike Theft, Damage

(Beijing) – As city officials work with shared bike operators to bring order to streets that have become cluttered with thousands of colorful two-wheelers, police in the interior city of Wuhan have launched a new campaign to rein in scofflaws who damage and steal the vehicles.

Wuhan police detained 11 people at the start of their campaign, which launched in the last week of May, according to a report in the Chinese edition of the official China Daily website. They warned 16 others, and distributed more than 20,000 educational brochures on the topic.

Since launching last year, shared bicycle services have exploded in China, with millions of vehicles now on streets and sidewalks of most major cities. Unlike older municipal shared bike programs that require users to find and return bikes to specific racks, the new services use smartphone technology to let users unlock bikes wherever they can find them. Users then can lock bikes anywhere they can find space on completion of rides, and are charged a small fee for time of use.

Most complaints to date have come from pedestrians and officials charged with keeping order on city streets, who say careless parking and riding have led to a sudden explosion of urban clutter and danger on the streets. But operators like Mobike and Ofo must also grapple with people who steal and damage bikes, or find ways to take them out of general circulation for their own use.

In one case, Wuhan police stopped a 45-year-old unemployed man surnamed Wang due to his nervous appearance while riding a trademark yellow Ofo bike. Officers discovered he had used his smartphone to unlock the bike, then scratched out the QR code on its rear fender that lets others get the lock code. The man then proceeded to treat the vehicle as his own, and had been riding it for 10 days when he was apprehended.

A spokeswoman for Ofo declined to give specific figures on how much bike damage and theft costs the company.

“But we’re seeing that as shared bikes become more common and pervasive, the broader rate of damage and stolen bikes goes down,” she said. “Wuhan’s launch of this program addressing illegal behavior is a boost for the industry and should be helpful. Ofo very much welcomes this kind of effort.”

Contact reporter Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)