Public rental bikes: Difficulties returning bikes during peak hours, frequent card-swiping errors.
In the morning rush hour, Ma Qing (a pseudonym) hurriedly pedaled her bicycle to the front of the Inner Mongolia Mansion. This bike had white fenders on both the front and rear wheels, and the bold white words “Beijing Public Bicycle” stood out vividly on its bright red frame.
This was one of the public bicycle rental and return stations.
Ma Qing quickly maneuvered the bike into a parking space, inserting the protruding metal ring at the front of the handlebars into the corresponding bike rack. A voice prompt said, “Please swipe your card to return the bike.” She placed her IC card on the card-swiping area of the rack, and about two seconds later, the voice announced, “Bike returned successfully.” Ma Qing finally let out a sigh of relief and briskly walked toward her workplace just a few dozen meters away. Amazed, she said today had been “too smooth — I could even go buy a lottery ticket today.”
Such smooth experiences are becoming increasingly rare. It has been nearly a year and a half since Beijing’s public bike system went into operation. While usage numbers are rising, problems such as deteriorating bike conditions, insufficient return parking spots, and system malfunctions have gradually surfaced. As a result, Ma Qing is growing more hesitant to use the supposedly convenient public bikes on rushed weekday mornings.
“Bikes frequently break down — in all kinds of ways.”
Ever since losing a bicycle, Ma Qing stopped riding to work. It wasn’t until the launch of the city's public bike system that she resumed cycling to work.
Ma Qing lives in the Jinyu Pool area of Dongcheng District, very close to Tiananmen Park. The city’s (Dongcheng) public bike service points are conveniently located right at the exit of Tiantan Dongmen subway station, with rental and return stations available at both Tiantan Dongmen and Tiantan Beimen. Her workplace is at the intersection of Dongdan, and there’s also a rental and return station just a stone’s throw away — less than 100 meters from the front of the Inner Mongolia Mansion. “These public bikes are practically tailor-made for me. There’s one right outside my door and another near my workplace. Rides under an hour are free. Usually I can get there in half an hour. But if I drove to work in the morning, I’d have to go through Ciqikou and Chongwenmen — both extremely congested intersections. Buses are crowded and just as stuck in traffic. Cycling to work is absolutely perfect for me.”
Ma Qing recalled that when she first started renting public bikes in early 2013, everything went smoothly. “The bikes were all brand new, and after using them a few times, I thought they were great.” But three or four months later, problems started to emerge — “bikes frequently broke down.” And the malfunctions came in all forms. “Some had broken front baskets, others were missing kickstands, and some even had no seats — someone must’ve unscrewed them.”
Once, Ma Qing rented a bike from Tiantan Beimen and headed toward Qianian Avenue, her usual commuting route. Halfway there, the bike’s pedal suddenly dropped onto the road. “There was nothing I could do but push it to the next station and switch bikes.”
After being stranded mid-ride too many times, she now has to be extra cautious every time she rents a bike, carefully inspecting each one. “But many issues aren’t visible from the outside — like a faulty pedal. You don’t notice until you’ve been riding for a while.”
“Got to work late several times because I couldn’t return the bike.”
At the rental and return station in front of the Inner Mongolia Mansion, there are currently six sets of bike racks, providing 30 parking spaces. On weekday mornings, when Ma Qing arrives by bike, she often finds several people ahead of her waiting for someone to take a bike so they can return theirs. “I’ve been late for work several times just because I couldn’t return the bike.”
Speaking of her experiences trying to return bikes during the morning rush, Ma Qing has plenty of complaints. The most frustrating incident happened last month. That morning, Ma Qing left home earlier than usual, selected a bike smoothly, and checked it out without issue. The ride over also went smoothly. When she arrived at the rental and return point in front of the Inner Mongolia Mansion, she saw one empty parking spot. “But it was malfunctioning. At first I didn’t realize it. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t return the bike.” Left with no choice, she stood next to the bike waiting for someone to take one and free up a space.
After five or six minutes, Ma Qing grew anxious. “I called the service hotline, and the staff told me to leave the bike there, saying someone would come to collect it.” On the phone, they told her she could go to work after locking the bike. “If I didn’t lock it, someone might ride off with it, and then it would be like I hadn’t returned it — so I had to lock it. But once I locked it, what about the key? Should I come back at noon to return the key? By then, the staff might have already moved the bike somewhere else, or maybe they weren’t even there. What was I supposed to do?” Confused and hesitant, she didn’t dare just lock the bike and walk away. Eventually, someone took a bike, and she was able to return hers and get to work. “It took nearly 20 minutes of hassle — all the time I saved by biking was wasted on this.”
Later, she encountered similar situations a few more times. “Once, there were two or three people ahead of me who looked even more rushed for work. They were anxiously calling the management office on the phone.”
“Had to visit two stations just to rent a bike.”
Because of her painful experiences over recent months, Ma Qing no longer wants to use public bikes in the morning. “I’m afraid something will go wrong. I’m in a rush to get to work and can’t afford the delay.”
But even when using public bikes to go home after work, she still faces problems.
Before borrowing a bike, users need to place their IC card on the card-swiping area of the bike rack. Once the card is successfully read, a voice prompt confirms it, and the bike unlocks automatically. “I put my card on, but the rack kept beeping, showing messages like ‘card error.’” When that happened, Ma Qing would try swiping at another rack. Often, just a few seconds after placing her card, the bike would unlock.
Once, when Ma Qing failed to borrow a bike by swiping her card, she used the electronic inquiry machine at the rental and return station. “The screen showed a query result saying I hadn’t returned a bike — but I hadn’t rented one that day at all. I exited the interface and tried to query again, but it showed a timeout.” She went to the next rental and return station to try again, but the same message appeared: “bike not returned.” Eventually, she called the public bike service hotline. After some explanation, it took five or six minutes for the staff to unlock her card through the backend. “Just to rent a bike, I had to visit two stations and spent five or six minutes on calls.”
“If there are any more problems, I won’t rent anymore.”
From spring 2013 until now, Ma Qing has been dealing with public bikes for almost a year. She said that when she first noticed various problems with the bikes, roughly one in five rentals had an issue. Now, it’s three out of five. “I used to rent a lot, but now much less. When something goes wrong, it stresses me out. If the problems keep increasing, I’ll just stop using them.”
In Ma Qing’s view, most people who rent public bikes are careful with the bikes. “I often see people swiping cards on racks without even having gone through the rental process. Some even tug at the handlebars. They probably want to use the bikes, but don’t know how.”
An even more critical issue is management. Ma Qing hopes for designated areas for faulty bikes. “If faulty bikes are parked in a special zone, staff will immediately know which ones are broken, and the next person won’t accidentally rent a defective one. Right now, broken bikes are just parked randomly. Staff may not know when they’ll come to fix them, and other users might rent them and end up with problems on the road. Plus, how many renters would voluntarily call to report a broken bike?”
Along Ma Qing’s commute, there are three rental and return stations on Qianian Avenue — yet the bike traffic on that stretch isn’t heavy. “The bikes there are covered in thick dust, and there are plenty of empty parking spaces.” But at the rental and return points near Chongwenmen and the Inner Mongolia Mansion, parking spaces are often in short supply. “If station distribution, bike allocation, and parking availability could be adjusted based on actual usage and turnover rate, it would definitely help ease the parking shortage. And each station should have staff on duty — right now, there’s no one.”
Despite threatening to quit using the service, Ma Qing still supports the operation of public bikes. “They’re convenient and environmentally friendly. But right now, it feels like each part of the system is just a little bit off, and the whole thing ends up feeling awkward. I’m afraid it’ll end up like a few years ago — nobody uses them, and they get taken down again.”
Problems both renting and returning — out of 32 bikes, 26 are damaged
According to Ma Qing’s daily cycling route to and from work, the reporter conducted an experience renting a public bicycle.
At the north gate of Temple of Heaven, following the instructions on the lock device, the reporter placed the IC card on the card-swiping area, but instead of the expected success prompt, a rapid series of “beeps” sounded along with the message “Card error.” Checking at a nearby inquiry machine showed that the IC card was in a borrowable state. Later, the reporter tried renting a bike from another lock device. After placing the card there for about three seconds, the rental succeeded.
Right next to where the reporter picked up the bicycle, an electric tricycle was chained to a public bicycle parking spot.
After smoothly cycling to the rent/return station in front of the Inner Mongolia Building on Chongwenmennei Street, the reporter discovered that the junction between the bike basket and handlebar had broken, and the originally equipped bell was nowhere to be found. When returning the bike, after inserting the lock hole at the front of the handlebar into the lock device, the same rapid beeping sound occurred again. It was only after switching to another parking spot that the return was successful.
At that time, the rent/return station had a total of 32 public bicycles parked. Six of them were parked outside the racks, their front lock holes strung together with a rope and locked to prevent theft. The remaining 26 bikes had varying degrees of damage: two had faulty baskets, seven had damaged black rubber covers on the handlebars, and nine were missing part or all of their bells.
Other stations also face mismatches between the number of lock devices and actual usage demand. For example, outside the northwest exit of Zhangzizhonglu Station on Line 5 of the subway, the north side of Zhangzizhong Road had six sets totaling 30 parking spots. The reporter visited this station multiple times and observed that the usage rate of parking spaces during the afternoon never exceeded 50%. Less than 20 meters north along Dongsi Beidajie from the subway exit, on the west side of the road, another rent/return station had eight sets of lock devices providing 40 parking spots, yet most of the time only around ten bicycles were parked there.
Staff admit that lock device malfunctions are common.
Ma Qing feels that the management of Beijing’s public bicycles is not very meticulous. “I’ve rented bikes in Hangzhou, and the whole process was smooth — the stations are evenly distributed, they even have models you can use with kids, and nearly every station has staff on duty.” In Beijing, however, Ma Qing has experienced a situation where the number of parking spaces hasn’t been adjusted according to usage needs in nearly a year, where the distribution of stations is rather unreasonable, and where staff members have never been seen.
An expert commented, “Public bicycles are very meaningful in solving short-distance travel issues, but the current management is too rough and extensive. Equipment maintenance, vehicle care, and feedback adjustments all fall short. Coupled with the high volume of motor vehicles and the poor cycling environment, overall, citizens’ satisfaction with bike rentals drops significantly.”
In response to the reporter’s inquiry, a staff member from the public bicycle hotline said, “There are indeed some problems, roughly one or two per station, most of which are related to the lock devices, not the users’ cards.” The staff member stated that inspection personnel would promptly report any malfunctioning bikes, which would then be taken away for repair. During morning rush hour, if the backend system shows that a certain station is full, they will also move some bikes away to free up parking spaces. “If any fees are incurred as a result, we will help resolve them. However, increasing parking spaces involves many coordination aspects, so for now, this is the best we can do.”