*Winter cycling isn’t extreme *
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/winter-cycling-isnt-extr…
“THE majority of people who are biking in the winter, they’re the extreme.
They’re the extreme cyclists and I don’t see that changing.”
Coun. Jeff Browaty made these comments last month at city hall, while
questioning the value of clearing snow from Winnipeg bike lanes in the
winter. His statement made headlines, but the sentiment that Winnipeg is
too cold to support winter cycling is not seen as an extreme viewpoint.
We don’t label cross-country skiers “extreme.” It is not extreme to let our
children play in the schoolyard at lunchtime. A game of shinny on an
outdoor rink isn’t extreme, and the only thing extreme about skating in the
middle of Winnipeg’s frozen rivers is the lineup for skate rentals at The
Forks. So, why is riding a bike in the winter seen as extreme?
The difference, of course, is that cross-country skiers don’t share their
tracks with 2,000-kilogram machines travelling 60 km/h. Winter cycling is
seen as extreme not because of temperature, but because riders must compete
with cars for space on slippery, ice-covered roads.
What if they didn’t have to? What if cyclists had their own lanes,
protected from cars and kept clear of snow? Would they still be extreme, or
would they be as normal as someone skating on the river trail?
The experience of other cities invariably shows that with those conditions
in place, winter cyclists become quite ordinary. Studies, surveys and real
world examples consistently demonstrate that the greatest deterrent to
winter cycling is safety and road conditions, not temperature. Winter
cities that have built well-connected networks of protected bike lanes and
made it a priority to keep them clear of snow have all realized the same
results — a dramatic increase in winter cycling.
An extreme example of this can be found in Oulu, a city in northern
Finland, 150 km from the Arctic Circle. With a very similar winter climate
to Winnipeg’s, Oulu has an extensive cycling network and pervasive bike
culture that have resulted in a percentage of cyclists in the winter months
that is almost six times higher than what Winnipeg experiences in the peak
of summer.
Closer to home, Montreal has been celebrated as one of the top cycling
cities in North America, with more than 100 km of on-street protected bike
lanes and 800 total km of cycling paths. Over the past nine years, the
amount of cycling infrastructure in the city has doubled and the number of
Montrealers who cycle as their main mode of transportation has grown by 50
per cent.
The city has begun to focus on winter cycling and now clears snow from 60
per cent of its pathways. Investments have been made in new technology such
as rotating brush plows that are less damaging to protective curbs and more
effective at removing ice.
These efforts have paid off, more than doubling the number of winter
cyclists in just a few years. In a city that experiences twice the amount of
Winnipeg’s snowfall, with temperatures only about five degrees warmer in
the coldest months, Montreal maintains 15 to 20 per cent of its summer
cycling population through the winter, averaging more than 15,000 cyclists
per day.
Two-thirds of those continue to ride at temperatures below -20 C. Winter
cyclists in Montreal were once dubbed les hurluberlus de l’hiver (the
weirdos of winter), but today they are neither weird nor extreme.
In Minneapolis, a top cycling city in the United States and its coldest
major city, similar conclusions have been reached. In summer, almost three
times more people commute by bike in Minneapolis than in Winnipeg. The
city’s cycling system is an innovative network of on-street bike lanes
connecting to a series of “bicycle freeways” along former rail lines,
linking the suburbs with downtown.
Most of these routes maintain more than 30 per cent of their ridership
through the winter months, largely because the city has dedicated bike-lane
clearing crews that are independent of the street cleaning system. Their
mandate is to clear all bike paths within 24 hours of a major snowfall. The
city’s new Pedestrian and Bicycle Winter Maintenance Study recommends going
further, by identifying priority cycling networks that will be cleared
immediately, similar to the way Priority 1 streets are handled in Winnipeg,
allowing cyclists to anticipate safe routes connecting major destinations
after a snowfall.
In Calgary, a protected downtown cycling network was created in 2015, along
with a strategy to promote winter cycling. The results were almost instant,
with four times more people cycling downtown in the winter, only one year
after the complete network was created. Today, about 30 per cent of summer
bike commuters continue through the winter months. More than half of those
ride in temperatures below -20 C.
Some of Winnipeg’s neighbourhoods have high summer cycling participation.
Wolseley is in the top 10 in Canada, with 15 per cent of all commuters
using a bike. Other central neighbourhoods see more than six per cent
cycling participation, a higher proportion than both Minneapolis and
Montreal. As we continue to expand and fill in the gaps in our cycling
network, a tipping point will come, and clearing lanes of snow will pay off
with much higher winter-cycling ridership as it has in every other city.
This could translate into thousands of winter cyclists in these
neighbourhoods.
Winnipeg is a proud winter city in many ways, but winter cycling is still
viewed as extreme because we have built a city that makes it so. Our
perceptions come from what Winnipeg has been, not what it can be. As our
city moves forward, policies such as bike lane snow-clearing should reflect
our aspirations, allowing the opportunity for our future to be different
from our past.
*Brent Bellamy is a senior design architect for Number Ten Architectural
Group.*
Please join Green Action Centre and Bike Winnipeg for a group viewing of
the monthly APBP webinar in the EcoCentre
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/uncategorized/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-o…>
boardroom.
This will be followed by discussion for those who wish to stay.
Should be an interesting topic with Winnipeg's very own *Chris Baker* as
one of the presenters!
cheers,
Beth
*AT Webinar: Wed, Jan 16th, 2-3pm*
Bus Stops with Bikeways: Designing Transit Stops with On-street Bicycle
Facilities
The increasing emergence of on-street bicycle facilities, including bike
lanes and physically separated facilities, pose challenges for integrating
transit stops while avoiding conflicts and delay for bicyclists and transit
users. This webinar will explore the best practices for designing streets
for bicycling and transit.
*Presenters:*
- Jesse Boudart, Toole Design
- John Urgo, AC Transit
- Brian Patterson, Urban Systems
- Chris Baker, City of Winnipeg
--
Beth McKechnie* | *Green Action Centre <http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/>
3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3777 x102 | Find us here
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>
Green Action Centre is your green living hub
Support our work by becoming a member
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>. Donate at
CanadaHelps.org <http://canadahelps.org/>
<http://www.gomanitoba.ca>
*City staff to probe whether measure can curb meth-related theft*
* Pedal to the metal for bike registry *
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/councillors-ok-mandatory-bike-regis…
A COUNCIL committee has unanimously supported a proposal to consider
mandatory registration of bikes at the point of sale.
Councillors on the protection, community services and parks committee told
the administration on Wednesday to examine the idea, which was raised by
Coun. Ross Eadie.
Point Douglas activist Sel Burrows encouraged the committee Wednesday to
support the plan. He wanted the registration system in place by the spring,
but that’s not going to happen. The administration said the earliest a
report could be completed for the committee is May. Council would consider
it in June.
“The big concern for us is going to be the consultation,” said Cindy
Fernandes, the city’s social services director, whose department will be
responsible for the report. “There are a large number of stakeholders — the
public, the retailers, the Winnipeg Police Service. If the intent is we’re
going to reduce the number of thefts, will this actually help in that way?
We’d actually like to make a determination or recommendation as whether
this will help resolve that issue.”
Eadie and Burrows raised the issue in mid-December, saying bike theft is
fuelling the meth crisis. Police acknowledge an increase in stolen bikes,
which are taken to chop shops, where they are exchanged for hits of meth.
The city maintains a voluntary bike registry, which went online in April.
Fernandes said about 10,000 bikes are registered, but that’s believed to be
a fraction of the number of bikes in the city.
There is a cost of $6.60 to input data on the city’s online bike registry.
Several bikes can be registered per household and three photos of each bike
can be posted as well. If recovered by police, the stolen bikes will be
returned without charge. Registration can be done at
winnipeg.ca/bikeregistry The city says more than 3,000 bikes are stolen
every year. While police recover about 1,000 of them, fewer than 100 are
traced to their owners and returned.
Burrows and Eadie said the idea originated with a police sergeant, who
thought a mandatory registry could deter thieves.
Burrows said when police see someone pulling two or three bikes down the
street, they might suspect they are stolen, but since most aren’t
registered, there is nothing they can do. He and Eadie believe that
requiring retailers to register bikes when they are sold will put a dent in
the number of thefts and the city’s meth problems.
Fernandes said her staff will conduct a cross-jurisdictional review to
determine what other cities are doing with registration, as well as talking
to retailers and specialty bike stores.
Fernandes told councillors she wants to be sure her department can devise a
system that meets their expectations.
Regardless of the municipal review, Eadie said Winnipeg’s public service
shouldn’t be afraid to break new ground.
“There’s no problem with the City of Winnipeg being at the leading edge of
this,” he said.
“If it doesn’t exist in the rest of Canada, I don’t care.”
The proposal would see retailers who sell bikes brought under the
jurisdiction of the Doing Business in Winnipeg bylaw, which regulates pawn
shops and used-goods retailers, gold dealers and massage parlours.
While a final report will be given to the committee in May, Fernandes was
instructed to present a verbal status report for the committee’s April
meeting.
aldo.santin(a)freepress.mb.ca
Councillor's tweet about bike lanes stirs controversy about snow clearing
priorities
https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/councillor-s-tweet-about-bike-lanes-stirs-contr…
An online post by a Winnipeg city councillor has some pedestrians and
cyclists at odds.
North Kildonan City Councillor Jeff Browaty was out in The Exchange
District after this week’s big snowfall and took issue with the way the
snow was cleared in the area.
He posted a tweet showing a snow-covered sidewalk on King Street and a
clear bike lane on nearby Bannatyne Avenue, with the caption ‘Typical
sidewalk vs typical bike lane, today.”
Browaty said commuter cycling isn't practical or mainstream and argues more
people need to walk to the bus or get to the store.
He's frustrated seeing bike lanes cleared before sidewalks.
"You can't do everything on day one. It takes like a period of time to get
work done. I would rather see sidewalks on Henderson Highway done,
sidewalks in The Exchange done, prior to the bike lanes,” Browaty said.
Cyclist Sasha Schellenberg said sidewalks should be prioritized to a
degree, but it’s also crucial to clear bike lanes of snow.
"All active transportation in Winnipeg we have huge issue with. It's just
not being cleared in a timely fashion. It takes so long for sidewalks and
bikes both to get to cleared so to make that comparison is ridiculous," he
said.
The city said King Street with the snowy sidewalk is priority one and
Bannatyne Avenue is priority two, but sometimes the crews’ sequence is
slightly off, and they do follow guidelines set out by city council.
The section of the sidewalk Browaty photographed has now been cleared,
which will help people like Mike Ginter.
He has a broken foot and has been using crutches through the snow.
Ginter agrees with Browaty -- that sidewalks should be cleared first.
"It's really disappointing, not a lot of people ride a bike in when it's
this kind weather, in deep snow. There are a handful that do. I believe
they should be done absolutely last," said Ginter.
Browaty said there's a review about snow clearing priorities underway and
he’s going to make his opinions known.
The City of Winnipeg said there are about 400 kilometres of bike path and
3,000 kilometres of sidewalk in Winnipeg.
Sidewalks on main routes are cleared first, followed by sidewalks on bus
routes and collector streets, then residential streets.
The city says generally bike paths get the same priority as the street
where they are located.
The Exchange District Biz also has a crew to help out in the area.
After a snowfall, it sends out a bobcat to help clear a path for
pedestrians and push snow away from bike lanes.
Clearing sidewalks should be priority over bike lanes, says Browaty
https://winnipegsun.com/news/news-news/clearing-sidewalks-should-be-priorit…
A city councillor is lobbying for snow to be cleared off sidewalks before
bike lanes, arguing the walking paths see much more winter use.
Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) took to Twitter on Monday to post
images of a snow-packed sidewalk and a cleared bike lane, both located in
the Exchange District.
“Typical sidewalk vs typical bike lane, today. #WrongPriorities
#WalkingisATtoo,” Browaty wrote with the images.
The councillor said he believes the official prioritization of sidewalks is
needed because winter cycling isn’t a mainstream local activity, while
Winnipeggers must often walk to nearby bus stops and stores.
“It’s frustrating … when sidewalks are not done and bike lanes, which are
very poorly used in my opinion, are plowed to the concrete,” said Browaty.
“(And) you can’t do everything on day one. It takes a period of time to get
(snow-clearing) work done.”
Browaty said he expects biking trails can sometimes be left snow-covered
for up to six days without much impact, while he believes sidewalks in
front of seniors’ blocks offer a “lifeline” to access the broader community.
But an advocate for cyclists argues all active transportation routes are
worthy of regular snow clearing.
“It’s not an either-or situation. We have to recognize that different roads
have different usage levels, whether it’s walking, biking or driving. So I
think it’s important that we … are clearing that (whole) network,” said
Mark Cohoe, executive director of Bike Winnipeg.
Cohoe said many paths allow both walking and biking, which would complicate
any effort to prioritize one of the two.
He argues the city should make cycling practical by consistently clearing
routes, since bike traffic can lessen vehicle demands on roads, produces no
polluting emissions and promotes public health.
In contrast to Browaty’s claim, Cohoe said he also believes Winnipeg’s
number of winter cyclists is growing.
“Certainly, people do want to get out there … and be active in winter,” he
said.
Under current city rules, both active transportation paths and sidewalks
are plowed by priority. Those along main roads are cleared first, followed
by those next to collector streets and, finally, those adjacent to
residential streets.
When an AT path isn’t next to a street, the snow-clearing priority relates
to how often it is used, said Ken Allen, a city spokesperson, in an email.
Allen said Winnipeg currently has about 3,000 kilometres of sidewalks and
about 400 kms of active transportation paths.
Browaty said he will lobby for his preference when Winnipeg city council
considers funding for a $1-million plan to beef up its snow-clearing
efforts along active transportation routes in the 2019 budget. If approved,
that AT winter maintenance strategy would take effect next winter.
jpursaga@ <https://postmediawinnipegsun.wordpress.com/mentions//>
postmedia.com Twitter: @
<https://postmediawinnipegsun.wordpress.com/mentions//>pursagawpgsun
Please join Green Action Centre and Bike Winnipeg again this year for group
viewings of the monthly APBP webinars in the EcoCentre boardroom.
Here's what to look forward to (Wednesdays, 2-3:15pm central time):
Jan 16: Bus Stops with Bikeways: Designing Transit Stops with On-street
Bicycle Facilities
Feb 20: Viewing Low-Stress Networks Through an Equity Lens
Mar 20: Navigating Without Curbs: Accessibility on Shared Streets
Apr 17: Designing Streets for the Speeds You Want
May 15: Maintaining Green Infrastructure: Hints for Success
Jun 19: Finding Common Ground with First Responders: Enhancing Safety and
Maintaining Access in Street Design
Jul 17: Return on investment for Active Transportation
Aug 21: Getting the Green Light: Improving Actuation and Detection for
Cyclists & Pedestrians
Sep 18: Can We Talk About the Street? Building Support for Controversial
Projects
Oct 16: If We Build it Will They Come? Estimating Demand for Biking and
Walking
Nov 20: Aging in Place: Designing Communities to Support Mobility
Dec 18: Education and Encouragement: Bringing the Right People Together
cheers,
Beth
--
Beth McKechnie* | *Green Action Centre <http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/>
3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3777 x102 | Find us here
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>
Green Action Centre is your green living hub
Support our work by becoming a member
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>. Donate at
CanadaHelps.org <http://canadahelps.org/>
<http://www.gomanitoba.ca>
*‘Lifelines’ must take priority: councillor *
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/lifeline-sidewalks-higher-snow-clea…
IT’S high time the city recalibrates its priorities when it comes to
clearing sidewalks after major snowfalls, a city councillor suggested
Monday.
North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty said he believes the work of Winnipeg’s
snow-clearing crews is second to none in North America, but there are areas
where sidewalks are “absolute lifelines for the neighbourhood.”
“I do believe that where sidewalks are lifelines to the area it’s an
important thing that should be done first off,” Browaty said.
“There are areas where people need to walk to the bus, where kids need to
walk to school, where you have senior residences — and many seniors don’t
drive — in my mind, those are far higher priorities than cycling.”
When sufficient snow falls to trigger widespread clearing, the priority
should be on roads and downtown sidewalks, with bike paths coming last on
the list, he said.
“The reality is that the numbers will prove there are a lot more people who
need to walk to the bus or get down the sidewalk than there are cycling in
the winter,” he said.
“I just don’t believe Winnipeg is ever going to see massive cycling in the
winter. It’s never going to be mainstream here.”
Browaty tweeted two photos Monday afternoon comparing a well-used, mushy
Henderson Highway sidewalk where the going was tough, to a
scraped-to-the-asphalt bike lane in the Exchange District.
The city has been contemplating enhanced snow clearing for priority
sidewalks and bike paths for several years.
In March 2016, Waverley West Coun. Janice Lukes called for a report to look
into the feasibility of improving snow clearing on priority sidewalks and
bike paths, but it got seven extensions before it was tabled last May.
Public works communications officer Ken Allen said the budget for the
initiative won’t be considered until March.
“The idea would be to make it, so, from south Pembina Highway to downtown,
you could travel that distance clear on active transportation pathways,”
Allen said. “It would improve snow clearing of sidewalks and active
transportation paths from all parts of the city to downtown. If approved,
the strategy would be implemented not this winter but next winter.”
The city’s current policy is to have major streets cleared whenever three
centimetres of snow accumulates. Clearing isn’t triggered on bus routes,
collector streets and back lanes until five centimetres have accumulated.
Winnipeggers awoke Monday to find an overnight snowfall of more than 14
centimetres, leading to a large deployment of street-maintenance resources
throughout the day.
“Using the mild temperatures, leveraging that, we started our operation
with some salting on the main streets. Once the snow compounded, we started
our snow plow operation on the main streets as well,” said Michael Cantor,
the city’s manager of street maintenance.
“This morning, we started our operation on bike routes, bike lanes,
sidewalks and back lanes. And we’re going to have a bigger operation
tonight on our bus routes and collector streets.”
More than 200 pieces of equipment were deployed Monday, including loaders,
graders and truck plows. That number is expected to nearly double once the
city begins working on residential plowing Wednesday.
Environment Canada warned that a cold front bringing blowing snow and
strong northwest winds was heading into the city overnight Monday into
today.
ryan.thorpe(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe
*China’s bike-sharing firms were supposed to be the next big thing. What
happened?*
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/31/a-billion-bicyclists-can-be-wrong-chin…
Until the late 1990s, China was a nation of cyclists. Bicycles were such a
vital part of everyday life that in the 1970s, owning one was a
prerequisite for marriage the way an apartment and a car are for Chinese
men today. A massive “bicycle army” rolled through the streets of Beijing
every morning like a flowing Great Wall. Then, from 1995 to 2002, the
government created bicycle-reduction policies
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15568318.2012.699999> in
order to encourage the growth of the auto industry and usage of the mass
transit infrastructure. But when the SARS epidemic hit, public transport
became associated with disease and danger, sparking an even bigger rush
toward cars in cities. Today, Chinese metropolises have some of the worst
traffic gridlocks in the world.
Bike-sharing apps seemed poised to be the solution—and millions of bikes
were poured into China’s streets by the private sector in the last three
years. But today, as the companies fail, unused units pile up in bicycle
graveyards, and queues of angry users demand their deposits back, it’s
obvious just how doomed the idea was from the start. The rise and fall of
the China bike craze played out like a sped-up version of every tech
bubble, an unprofitable idea sustained by fantasy, false predictions, and
the power of bigger firms.
Local authorities struggling with traffic have been trying to put residents
back on two wheels. As early as 2007, docked bike-shares were introduced by
municipal governments to alleviate mobility issues in cities such as
Beijing, Hangzhou, and Wuhan, but users found accessing bikes via docking
stations to be inconvenient, and the services failed to thrive.
The bicycle rental company Ofo was created in 2014 as a Peking University
school project, and Mobike was found in the following year, both
capitalizing on the shortcoming of all docked bike-sharing services: that
the stations limited access and spontaneity, two essential joys of cycling.
The “little red bikes,” as Mobikes came to be known, soon appeared on the
street corners of Shanghai, ready to be discovered via a GPS-enabled mobile
app, and rideable with just a 299 yuan deposit, about $45, via mobile
payment. The little yellow Ofo bikes soon followed suit by spreading beyond
campuses, eventually joined by around 60 other start-ups.
The image sold by the firms was fresh and upbeat, riding on the same
bright-eyed enthusiasm for the potential of mobile technology that helped
the mobile payment app Alipay, the e-commerce platform Taobao, and the
social media app WeChat become staples of Chinese life. Users wanted both a
cheap way to get across town and the freedom of cycling. For the
government, the bike-share boom was both an opportunity to become a world
leader in climate change and also harkened back to a happier, simpler, and
more harmonious time when China was the kingdom of bicycles
<https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/04/bikeshare-save-biking-in-chi…>.
Mobike’s slogan, “Bring bicycles back to the city,” captured why the
program was appealing to local authorities, who at first were willing to
give firms a lot of freedom to experiment and grow. While Mobike and Ofo
blazed the trail, dozens of other firms such as Bluegogo and Xiaoming Bike
sprung up.
But cars were not going to be banished from the streets, and it wasn’t long
before cyclists took mostly to the sidewalks. It took even less time for
haphazardly parked bikes in a multitude of colors to begin clogging the
sidewalks, already made too narrow by makeshift parking lots and scooter
traffic. By 2017, in Beijing and Shanghai, where the bikes were most
concentrated, there were parts of the city where streets resembled urban
obstacle courses made of bikes that citizens had to clamber over and
maneuver around. Trucks were deployed daily to collect improperly parked
bikes, and workers to stack bikes neatly. Despite efforts to manage the
bikes, they were like a brightly colored rash that increasingly drew the
ire of both citizens and local authorities.
But at first users and investors alike assumed that this over-saturation
was just a stage in the industry, just like what mobile payments and food
delivery had gone through. Consumers were happy at the dirt-cheap prices as
companies raced to the bottom to draw numbers. Many start-ups were flat-out
giving out free rides in an all-in bid to win users, and consumers only too
happily enjoyed all the perks while small companies quickly burned through
their modest stockpile of investor money and disappeared. As various
players began to bow out, there were instances of people not being able to
recover their deposits from bike companies that went bankrupt
<https://technode.com/2018/07/11/xiaoming-bankrupcy/>, ominous
foreshadowing for things to come for Ofo in 2018.
It was always unclear how the firms were ever supposed to be profitable.
According to analysis published by Xinhua
<http://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2018-01/18/c_1122275190.htm>, each bike
costs just over $200 to manufacture and $10 for each tuneup by a
technician, and they made a profit of just 1 yuan, about 15 cents, per 2
hour ride, following a deposit of between $15 and $45. The mainstream view
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardwindsoreurope/2018/07/05/mobike-vs-ofo-…>—
pushed heavily by investors—was that the user data, rather than the
service, was the actual product, and that the harvested user data would
lead to more targeted advertising. But as so often occurs, these
ambiguously defined long-term returns yielded nothing in the endless
interim. There was no short-term return on investment for the companies to
stay afloat, and the smaller players began to fall in droves.
Between June and November 2017, Kuqi Bikes, Bluegogo, Dingding Bikes,
3Vbikes, and Wukong Bikes all shut down, unable to pay suppliers, maintain
operations, or return deposits. Around the same time, local authorities
began to roll back their initial tolerance by imposing new restrictions and
fines. This wasn’t the first time that start-ups that had previously relied
on government lenience had run afoul of new legislation: Didi, China’s Uber
equivalent, lost most of its driver pool after cities began to demand that
its workers hold a valid local residence permit.
As governments tightened up, cyclists found themselves being hit with fines
for riding on the sidewalk across cities of all sizes. In May, the 15th
Beijing Municipal People’s Congress imposed fines on bike-share companies
for improperly parked units, and more cities soon followed suit. At a
neighborhood level, signs forbidding bike-share cycles went up on apartment
complex gates, in commercial districts, and even in public parks.
In these bloody battles for market share and user data sustained by
bonfires of money, only those with the deepest pockets can hope to emerge
victorious. In the early days of bike-share investment, money poured from a
wide range of sources, such as venture capital firm Black Hole Capital and
game developer Elex Technology, which both backed Bluegogo, and
peer-to-peer investment company Pufa VC (whose CEO backed his son’s
bike-share, Dingding Bikes). Throughout 2016 and 2017, barely a week went
by without a new announcement on bike-share investments. Mobike began by
raising capital from multiple venture capital firms such as Sequoia
Capital, Sinovation Ventures, and Panda Capital, before Tencent joined the
fray. Early Ofo investors include Xiaomi and Didi Chuxing, later joined by
Hony Capital, Citic Private Equity, and Alibaba’s Ant Financial, before the
Alibaba parent company followed suit.
And yet, at the end of every cycle of life and death for the latest tech
bubble, it always seems to come down to Alibaba vs. Tencent
<http://fortune.com/longform/alibaba-tencent-china-internet/>, China’s two
biggest tech giants. User and user data acquisition has much more strategic
value for their ecosystems to come up with increasingly targeted services
and platforms. Alibaba staked
<https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/12/22/bilibili-cozies-up-to-alibaba-to-…>
food delivery and video streaming platforms. Only Alibaba and Tencent have
the heft to operate bike-shares at a loss just to acquire geolocation user
data.
In April, Mobike was saved from its financial struggles when it was
acquired by Tencent-backed Meituan Dianping, an online-to-offline
e-commerce and food delivery super-app, itself a product and survivor of
the tumultuous tech landscape and the brief fad for coupon services. This
abruptly launched the bike-share wars into the endgames. Mobike’s newfound
financial stability allowed it to pull the rug out from under its remaining
competitors by getting rid of the deposit entirely. Even then, Mobike is
now a grizzled survivor that has lost its luster. Today it operates with a
greatly reduced fleet, and much of its overseas expansions has petered out.
Meanwhile, Ofo was suffering dire cash flow problems, struggling to pay
suppliers and keeping operations afloat, and concentrating all its efforts
on putting out fires rather than growing the business. Earlier this year,
Ofo halted its costly and overly aggressive expansions abroad to focus on
the domestic market—which placed on display the limitations of its own
financial reach and its leaders’ utter lack of a plan. After a missed
opportunity to merge with Mobike and a failed Didi acquisition, Ofo stands
on the brink of financial ruin, its only lifeline an Alibaba buyout that
may never come. Sensing the end of the bike wars, disgruntled people lined
up outside Ofo’s office in Beijing clamoring for their deposits to be
returned while the digital queue for withdrawing one’s deposit reached as
long as 13 million users.
Despite the ongoing Ofo crisis, Hellobike has just raised 4 billion yuan,
more than half a billion dollars, from Primavera Capital and Alibaba’s Ant
Financial. It seems that there are still some who hasn’t woken up from the
bike-share fever dream.
Meanwhile, Shanghai is adding more docking stations, perhaps a return to
the boring, but infinitely more manageable, version of the bike-share.
There’s always going to be a small audience for cycling—but it turned out
to be a bad dream to build giant firms on.
*Frankie Huang was born in Beijing and raised in New Jersey. Currently, she
lives in Shanghai where she works as a strategist at an idea studio.*
--
Beth McKechnie* | *Green Action Centre <http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/>
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