two wheelers

credit: Baptiste LeJeune

Bicycle sharing has been in operation in major cities for over a decade, with Citi Bike in NYC, for example. Docking stations took up vital car parking spots throughout the city. Over time, it became the new normal.

Starting in China, with the ease of technology and GPS, a number of startups (e.g., Mobike, Ofo, oBike) have been competing over the last few years for the dockless bicycle sharing market. Venture capitalists have infused millions and their markets have expanded to Europe, Australia and other Asian markets. The wheels unlock with a code, and GPS allows a user to locate the nearest bicycle.

In many major cities though, many have complained about the clutter. Although users get points deducted for traffic violations and/or inappropriate "parking" of the bicycles, the concept of dockless gets mired with appropriate parking spaces. While one would think that people would just park these in front of their doors for door-to-door service, it was really random where these were "hanging out" (e.g., in a pedestrian tunnel, middle of a field, inside a private and secure parking garage, in the middle of an alley).

While Singaporeans appear too orderly for such thing to arise, there have been protestors in other cities who have taken the bicycles and hung them up in trees and other outlandish spots.

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Update September 20, 2017:

Mobike made its debut in the U.S. market by launching a pilot program of 180 bicycles. While Washington, D.C. already has a dock-based Capital Bikeshare program, officials believe this would serve a different market and in different neighborhoods. However, the company is planning on mobilizing a local team if necessary to move and re-park the bicycles neatly.

Ironically, Spin, a U.S. based startup, also launched a pilot with initial 100 bicycles in D.C. Although it has also launched pilots in other cities, including Bay Area, it has been in very select neighborhoods like South San Francisco, rather than it being as prevalent as the dockless bicycles in Singapore and China.