Over The Handlebars

China’s frenetic startup scene is burying cities undermountain sof bikes—and locals are getting an almost free ride.

- Christina Larson

My commute to work in Beijing used to be a 50-minute ordeal of urban combat. I’d board a rush-hour subway car—and by “board” I mean forcefully wedge myself into a mass of humanity so tightly packed that I couldn’t bend an arm to glance at my phone. A few months ago, a new, semi-ironic indignity began to add even more time to the slog: the need, outside each station, to navigate past sprawling regiments of rentable bicycles, numbering in the dozens or even hundreds, clogging walkways and tripping up pedestrians. The bikes are the ever-expanding inventory of two Beijing startups, Mobike and Ofo, and several copycats. The services have become almost identical—scan a QR code to unlock a bike, then drop it off anywhere, no docking station needed—so the only thing they can compete on is convenience.