Society
Bike hire is all the rage in cities across the world, including London where Santander sponsors the main scheme. In Beijing, firms such as Mobike, Ofo, and Unibike are pioneering the techniques once used by Uber to make cheap wheels easily available (see our report in Issue 45, p.58-61).
Ofo are now looking to expand internationally. They have shipped 500 bikes to the UK and conducted a trial in Cambridge at the end of April where twenty bikes were deployed on the streets of the famous university city.
The next prospect is the other top UK university city of Oxford where several Chinese bike hire companies have been in touch with the city council. “This is brilliant. The more people we can get on bike-sharing bikes in Oxford, the better,” said city councilor and chairwoman of the Oxford City Cycling Forum, Louise Upton. “But it absolutely has to be well managed so it is not a nuisance to other people,” she cautioned.