Over the New Year, I found myself pedaling through the streets of Shanghai, experiencing firsthand the city's impressive bike-share system.
Despite my years of using Citi Bike in New York, I was immediately struck by the sheer scale and accessibility of Shanghai's system.
The irony wasn't lost on me that I was enjoying Shanghai's seamless bike-share system at the very moment New York City was finally implementing congestion pricing, after a bruising political battle spanning many years.
Shanghai's cityscape is a mesmerizing blend of towering skyscrapers and omnipresent surveillance cameras. The streets buzz with fleets of two-wheeled electric vehicles, piloted by an army of delivery workers known as waimai renyuan, 外卖人员.
Together with my wife, Yin Yue, a native of Shanghai, I traversed the city with surprising ease over its bike-share network and nearly continuous network of bike lanes. Note that the term "bike lane" can be misleading here as all bike lanes are shared with the delivery workers on their fleets of electric scooters. So, to be more precise, there is a network of two-wheeled vehicle lanes.
The system itself is a marvel of urban planning. Pastel-colored, single-speed pedal bikes with small baskets are stationed on most corners. Despite being only 5-foot-8, I found myself adjusting the seat to its highest position for comfortable riding.
The scale is truly staggering; as of November 2023, Shanghai boasted over 280,000 shared bikes in use. By way of comparison, Citi Bike provides about 30,000 bikes docked in roughly 2,000 stations in part of the city. (The development of Shanghai’s bike share system was not without growing pains. As CNN reported, after launch in 2017 there were massive pileups of unused dockless bikes.)
During my stay, bikes were always at hand. To maintain the system's efficiency, Shanghai employs "bike rebalancing" staff who load the dockless bikes onto the back of three wheeled cargo bikes. One bike rebalancer offered that his work entails picking up and moving bikes from commercial to residential areas. He waved away our questions about how difficult his job was.
And the cost of riding is remarkably cheap. My rides typically ran between 1.5 and 2.5 RMB (about $0.20 to $0.34), regardless of distance. In New York City, the cost of a Citi Bike ride (without a membership) is $4.99 for the first 30 minutes and $0.38 per minute thereafter. This pocket-friendly pricing made exploring the city a breeze, allowing me to cover vast stretches without breaking the bank.
What set Shanghai apart was the immaculate condition of its bike lanes. Armies of workers, themselves perched on three-wheeled pedal or electric cargo bikes, swept every inch of the lanes a far cry from the often debris-strewn bike paths in New York. Even streets alongside highways offer bike lane access. This level of infrastructure puts New York's fragmented bike lane network to shame.
The safety difference, too, was palpable. My wife is reluctant to cycle in New York due to safety concerns, but she found Shanghai's system surprisingly easy, and joined me on most rides. Shanghai's elimination of on-street parking is another game-changer. Even narrow streets boast wide, comfortable bike lanes, a luxury unimaginable in New York, where parked cars dominate curb space. (According to public data, private car ownership in Shanghai in 2023 was approximately 4.2 million vehicles vs. the 2.3 million in New York City, but Shanghai is about six times the size of New York.)
All vehicle parking is relegated to garages connected to shopping centers and commercial buildings or to designated areas within housing complexes.
However, the ease of cycling in Shanghai comes with trade-offs. Signing up for the bike-share system as a visitor involves using the Alipay or other payment app, which requires creating a "transportation" account and submitting personal information, including passport details. (During my stay I used HelloBike, owned by tech-giant Alibaba — every unlocking is greeting with a recording of a female voice brightly saying “Hello.” I could not access other bike share providers as they required local telephone or other information I did not have.)
In Shanghai's nearly cashless society, using Alipay isn't just convenient — it's essential. As I handed over my data, myself observing arrays of surveillance cameras on every corner, I couldn't help but feel unnerved.
The streetscape also reflects unique urban challenges. In response to concerns over lithium batteries catching fire, laws prohibiting battery-powered “electric scooters” from entering buildings have been put in place, resulted in rows of these being parked outside and cluttering sidewalks alongside dockless bicycles.
The ease of cycling in Shanghai was undeniable, but it came at the cost of personal privacy and operated within a tightly controlled society. It feels a bit like theme park authoritarianism, with attributes of being both real and uncanny at the same time. It offers a glimpse of urban mobility's potential, but also highlights the stark differences in how cities approach shared challenges and the forces shaping those outcomes.
The experience left me wondering — and hoping: How can we in New York, with our ideals of civic participation and individual liberty, achieve similar results in building safe, continuous bike lanes and comprehensive micromobility networks? With the expansion of bike lanes and the introduction of congestion pricing, perhaps we can.
