Tom Phillips “Bike-sharing revolution aims to put China back on two wheels” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/28/bike-sharing-revolution-aims-to-put-china-back-on-two-wheels
2016年後半の上海の交通事情でいちばん目に見える変化といえば、ちゃりんこが突然増えた、ということだろう。これは多分、北京、広州、厦門といった中国の他の大都市でも同じ。交通渋滞と大気汚染の深刻化を背景に、「自転車シェアリング」*1ビジネスが活性化しているからだ。
上の記事では、2014年に５人の北京大学卒業生によって起業されたofo*2を中心に記事が構成されているが、ofo以外にも幾つかの企業が競合している*3。
In recent months an unmissable fleet of fluorescent orange, canary yellow and ocean blue bicycles has hit the streets of urban China as part of a hi-tech bike-sharing boom that entrepreneurs hope will make them rich while simultaneously transforming the country’s traffic-clogged cities.“We want to solve problems by getting bikes back on to the streets of our cities,” said Li Zekun, the 25-year-old marketing director of Ofo, one of the startups spearheading this 21st-century transport revolution.
From Shanghai to Sichuan province, bike-sharing schemes are being rolled out on an unprecedented scale in an effort to slash congestion and air pollution by putting a country once known as the “Kingdom of Bicycles”*4 back on two wheels.
ofo以外；
Ofo, so named because of the word’s resemblance to a bicycle, has put about 250,000 of its bright yellow bikes to work since late 2015, of which around 40,000-50,000 are in the capital, according to Li.The Peking University biology graduate said his company, which was founded by five students looking to improve transport options on university campuses, had attracted about 3 million users in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen and Guangzhou. Its bicycles make about 1.5m trips each day between them.
“For short journeys, bikes are the best form of transport,” Li enthused at Ofo’s headquarters in the Internet Finance Centre, a 26-floor building in western Beijing. “You never know when a bus might come. It might not be easy to find a taxi. Walking might take you too long and tire you out.”
「自転車シェアリング」は中国でも以前からあったが、これほどのブームになることはなかった*7。今回のブームの基礎にあるのは、GPSやスマートフォン・アプリのような技術面でのイノヴェーションだろう；
Other startups, such as Mobike*5 and Bluegogo*6, are seeking to get in on the act, depositing truckloads of bicycles on sidewalks and street corners across China.Li Gang, Bluegogo’s 28-year-old chief executive, said he believed bike sharing would bring “mental joy” to millions of Chinese citizens as well as boosting their health and fitness levels.
It was his mission “to enable everyone to enjoy the happiness of bike riding”, he said.
“I predict that by next year millions of people will be riding bikes in Beijing every day,” said the entrepreneur, whose firm has 50,000 bikes spread across three cities – Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen – and plans to expand to a new city every fortnight.
“More people will choose this healthy way to get around so the number of cars on the roads will decrease dramatically and this will really help the climate and the environment,” he said.
さて、かつて自転車は中国を表わす記号であった。自転車に乗って通勤する人民の大群。しかし、中国の改革開放と経済成長に伴って、自転車に乗るという習慣は徐々に衰退し、自動車に取って代わられていった；
The other factor making China’s bike-sharing boom stand out is the technology.While those sharing bikes in cities such as London must pick them up and park them at docking stations, tracking technology means Chinese users can collect and park their bikes wherever they please.
Mobike’s orange-wheeled bikes have a GPS system that allows users to locate them using a map on the company’s smartphone app.
Users of Ofo’s yellow bikes, which cost about 10p to use, unlock them using a combination code sent through its app, and the company keeps tabs on its bikes by monitoring the location of the users’ smartphones.
“It is very convenient,” said Li, who claims an Ofo bike can be ready to ride in about 10 seconds.
In 1980, almost 63% of commuters cycled to work, the Beijing Morning Post reported last year, citing government data. But by 2000 that number had plummeted to 38% and today it stands at less than 12%*8.Car use, meanwhile, has rocketed. In 2010 China overtook the US to become the world’s largest car market, with 13.5m vehicles sold in just 12 months. This year, manufacturers expect to sell almost 23m passenger cars.
That jump from two to four wheels has been music to the ears of international car manufacturers, but it has resulted in gridlock and contributed to a pollution crisis experts blame for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths every year.
According to state media, Beijing has 5.65m registered vehicles which annually pump 500,000 tonnes of pollutants into the atmosphere. And with China now waging a high-profile “war on pollution”, cities hope a return to the era of the bicycle can help them clean up at least some of the smog. Transport officials in Beijing are aiming to get 18% of commuters riding to work by 2020.
*1:中国語では「分享単車」。
*2:http://www.ofo.so/ See eg. http://baike.baidu.com/item/ofo%E5%85%B1%E4%BA%AB%E5%8D%95%E8%BD%A6
*3:上海ではofoよりもMobikeの方が優勢かな。
*4:See Robert Dreyfuss “China: A Kingdom Of Bicycles No Longer” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120811453
*5:http://mobike.com/ See eg. http://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%91%A9%E6%8B%9C%E5%8D%95%E8%BD%A6 Steven Millward “Former Uber exec gets funding for bike sharing app” https://www.techinasia.com/china-bike-sharing-startup-funding
*6:http://bluegogo.com/ See eg. http://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%B0%8F%E8%93%9D%E5%8D%95%E8%BD%A6 Ouyang Shijia “Bike sharing business pedals 2 billion yuan plan” http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2016-11/24/content_27480361.htm
*7:See http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20100313/1268466640
*8:See 「交通部門：計劃2020年北京騎車出行比例至18％」http://www.bj.xinhuanet.com/fw/2015-09/23/c_1116648188.htm
