Central China city to cut number of share bikes by 150,000

The city of Wuhan in central China announced on Tuesday that this year it would reduce by 150,000 the number of share bikes scattered around the city's streets, as the huge number of bikes has seriously disrupted traffic, People's Daily reported.

A bird's eye view of nearly 10,000 shared bikes. [File photo: IC]

The three major bike share services Mobike, Ofo, and Hellobike have been ordered to cut the number of bikes they have in the city by around 50,000 each.

The cut is based on the results of a recent assessment of the service provided by the bike share companies in the city, such as the management of their bikes, the quality of their service, their management of bike parking, the public satisfaction with their service. Mobike was assessed to be the best performing service provider, followed by Ofo and Hellobike, although none of the companies received a very high performance score.

An official from Wuhan's transport and communications committee said that many bikes are inappropriately parked, and the companies all lack the manpower to handle the problem, which have plagued the residents since the bike share services became popular.

Currently, over one million share bikes have been released into the city. More than 15 million people in Wuhan have registered with a share bike service, and nearly three million rides are taken every day.