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Bike rental vendors feel the heat after ban
Print Edition
SMALL bicycle rental businesses are suffering in the wake of a Hangzhou government ban on surrey and tandem bikes.
The bikes have always been popular with tourists wanting to take a leisurely ride around West Lake, but they have been banned because they are considered dangerous. Signs along roads circumventing the lake warn vendors not to rent out the bikes or they will be punished.
“Who will rent bikes from us?” asked a dealer, surnamed Hu, who has been in the business for 10 years. “The public bikes are free. Our niche was renting two-passenger bicycles.”
He’s not the only vendor struggling now. On Nanshan and Beishan roads, which surround West Lake, bike rental sites like Hu’s are a common sight.
A vender surnamed Li said it used to be a great business.
“In one or two weeks you could cover your investment,” Li said.
He said he would charge customers 20 yuan (US$3.24) to 30 yuan per hour to rent a tandem bike. On nice spring days he said a bike could be rented three times a day for an average of two hours each time.
The bike ban also stipulates that traffic police will penalize violators while urban management authorities can confiscate the bikes.
National traffic laws state that people are not allowed to use unicycles and tandem or surrey bikes on pubic roads because they are dangerous. However, authorities often overlooked the rental of such bikes until the announcement was issued.
Even the city’s public transport company has been renting out its fleet of 50 tandem bikes, which was taken by bike rental firms as a sign that the business was OK.
A vender who identified himself as Wang said the recent ban has left him rather confused.
“When I started my business a year ago and got my license, I was only told by government officials that bikes for three people were forbidden,” he said.
Wang, who also rents regular bikes, said he spent more than 20,000 yuan to buy surrey and tandem bicycles, which now cost him 1,000 yuan a month to keep in storage.
“It’s frustrating because tourists keep asking if they can rent the two-passenger bikes,” he added.
He said he is considering his future options because the government looks “very serious” about enforcing the ban, adding several of his peers have been caught and punished.
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