Thousands of abandoned bikes in China have been problematic in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, so they’re now being dumped in huge lots. Bike-share companies flooded city streets with rentable bikes that anyone with an app can activate and ride for a small fee. Competing companies basically created the same product, so the supply started to outgrow the demand, and now lots of abandoned bikes are just piling. Drone footage of the abandoned bicycles can be seen in South China Morning Post’s YouTube video:
Why are there mountains of bike graveyards?
Unlike other countries like Europe where shared bikes need to be dropped off at designated docking stations, China’s shared bikes can be left anywhere, so they often end up in areas that are prohibited. YouTuber Serpentza said security guards pile shared bikes or simply toss them over the fence. Sometimes the public bikes are stripped for parts or tires get ripped. There was even a time when excess bikes were just thrown into local rivers. The oversupply of bikes, dwindling demand to use them, and the increase of broken parts have resulted in mountains of bikes being piled in various cities in China.
Photographer Mathias Guillin took drone photos of the shared-bike lots, and they were featured on Yahoo News:
This pile of shared bikes looks like a piece of multi-colored Velcro loop.
