Unappealing side effects of sharing economy
LARGE NUMBERS OF TOURISTS flocked to Shenzhen Bay Park in Guangdong province on Monday using bikes they rented via bike-sharing service apps such as Mobike. There were so many cyclists that they blocked most of the bike lanes in the park and caused great inconvenience to other visitors. Southern Metropolis Daily commented on Wednesday:
A glance at the congested bike lanes in Shenzhen Bay Park would be enough to give people goose bumps. During the three-day Tomb Sweeping Day travel rush that ended on Tuesday, an average of 300,000 tourists visited the park each day, many of them riding station-less sharing bikes.
The influx of enthusiastic riders made park management difficult, as randomly parked bikes turned the beach bike lane into a makeshift parking lot. That explains why after the influx of cyclists on Monday, sharing bikes were forbidden to enter the park grounds the next day.