Central China city halts new shared bikes on streets

People ride shared bikes in Wuhan, Hubei province, June 26, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

WUHAN - Central China's Wuhan has banned any more shared bikes from being stationed in the city from Monday.

The number of shared bikes in the urban area of Wuhan has neared 700,000, which exceeds the carrying capacity of the city (400,000), according to an official statement.

Five shared bike companies including ofo and Mobike have been in Wuhan since December. Their rapid expansion has led to parking chaos, safety hazards and obstructions in crowded areas such as subway entrances, shopping malls, bus stations and even highways.

The government informed the companies and those fail to comply will face further controls.

In the meantime, Wuhan will develop a data monitoring platform to manage the existing shared bikes.

Over the weekend, the city government agreed to mark off or designate about 2,500 km of non-motor lanes in downtown area, mainly for shared bikes.

According to BigData-Research, 19 million people used shared bikes last year and that number is expected to rise to 50 million this year. Authorities in cities such as Shanghai and Tianjin already have regulated the sector.