I lived in China for 4 months and it was the greatest. No matter where I was in the country I had access to bikes. I was able to get cheaper housing away from bustling transit stations but within 5 minutes of biking, and just bike to the stations, for minimal cost, which meant that I saved a huge amount of money on rent, got some exercise, and just generally enjoyed my experience living in Chinese cities more. When I traveled around the country I still could use the bikes, and I had no worries of whether or not my bike would be stolen. It opened up a bunch of possibilities for me.
The dumping and chaos is certainly a problem but I'm confident those details can be solved if city governments are willing to play ball. I've heard in China a lot of the dumping is by city employees who need to fix something but bikes are in the way, so they toss them into piles—but that kind of thing seems like a logistical detail, not an inherent aspect of the system.
The dumping and chaos is certainly a problem but I'm confident those details can be solved if city governments are willing to play ball. I've heard in China a lot of the dumping is by city employees who need to fix something but bikes are in the way, so they toss them into piles—but that kind of thing seems like a logistical detail, not an inherent aspect of the system.