MORE than 1,000 Mobikes recently went into use at 50 public parking areas at Songjiang University Town and along Metro Line 9.

Mobike, the Internet-driven, app-enabled bicycle hire service, is sweeping Shanghai with its iconic hot orange wheel hubs, seen everywhere in the city.

The service is especially popular among young people, who are drawn by the modest rental cost of 1 yuan (15 US cents) per half-hour and by the convenience of being able to drop off the bikes in any public area. For them, riding a hot orange bike is both cost-effective and trendy.

GPS trackers monitor every bike’s location and smartphones enable users to hire the bikes themselves.

Starting from the city center, Mobike has expanded its cycling map to suburban districts such as Minhang, Yangpu and Songjiang.

Mobikes

By the end of this year, about 10,000 Mobikes will be in use in Songjiang, reaching as far as the towns of Xinqiao and Chedun.

“The bike service is perfect for making a short journey at an affordable price,” said Wang Chaoran, a Songjiang native from the Fangsong community. “In addition, it looks very tech-chic.”

Of the 1,120 Mobikes already operating in Songjiang, each is estimated to be rented three times a day for average trips of about three kilometers, according to the district’s Transport and Traffic Commission.

“I ride home now every day because the distance from the Metro to my home is a little far to walk and too short to drive,” Songjiang local Yu Ran told Shanghai Daily as she emerged from the Songjiang Stadium Metro station. “Two kilometers cost me only one yuan. Plus, it gives me some physical exercise.”

Mobike is not the only bike-hailing app in Shanghai. Another bicycle-sharing service called Ofo is also hot. Operating via a mobile app, it started out as a student project at Peking University in 2014 and soon spread to other universities in China.

Ofo currently has over 70,000 bikes on campuses across 20 cities, with 1.8 million users taking around 500,000 rides every day.

Students simply scan the QR codes on the hired bicycles to receive codes to unlock them. Hiring charges are kept to a minimum. Special patrol teams have been set up to pump up flat tires and undertake minor repairs.

“It’s been very popular,” said student Li Huiming at Shanghai International Studies University. “It’s convenient for me to commute across campus or to nearby destinations. The best part of it is that we don’t need to buy new bikes and then dump them after graduation.”

That’s not to say that bike-sharing services don’t have their glitches. Shanghai Daily heard complaints about weak GPS that often leads users to the wrong parking places and about people chaining the bikes in their neighborhoods with their own locks.

The local transport and traffic commission said users must return the bikes to public places for non-motorized vehicles.

The bicycle-hire program is one facet of Songjiang’s “shared, green transport” policy, which also includes promoting electric bikes, green cars, trams and new-energy buses.

Electric bike rental service

Last month, an electric bike rental service also began in the district. About 10 public parking areas were designated along Xinsong Road, a main street linking Songjiang and Minhang. The first batch of 500 electric bikes has been used about 1,500 times a day, according to the district officials.

The local Transport and Traffic Commission told Shanghai Daily that it is trying to address what is known as the “last kilometer” problem, which was highlighted in the urban planning blueprint “Shanghai 2040,” issued in August. “The last kilometer” refers to distances between Metro stations and bus stops to residential neighborhoods and downtown business districts — distances that are too long to walk and too short to drive.

Songjiang’s major public transport system of railways, tramcars and buses cannot cover every corner of the district.

“Bike + walk and bike + bus are very good solutions to the ‘last kilometer,’” said the commission.

Electric buses

This year, 25 shuttle bus lines linking transport hubs communities, schools and commercial centers have gone into operation.

To try to encourage more use of buses, the district set up a pilot project of 28 digital boards at Bus No. 17 stops to give exact arrival times for the next bus.

Songjiang has increased its fleet of electric buses to about 300, or one-quarter of the total. That percentage will rise as more combustion-engine buses are removed from service and replaced by green versions.

“An ideal transport system should give priority first to walkers, then to bikes, then to public transport and finally to private cars,” said Chu Dajian, a professor at Tongji University and director of the Sustainable Development and Urbanization Think Tank. “However, China is now developing in reverse order. So it’s time we should make it right and turn Shanghai into a city that is friendly to green travel.”

A green car rental service called Evcard started in Songjiang last year. Accessed mainly through smartphone apps or car-rental websites, the service charges by the minute. The first 30 minutes cost 15 yuan, with each additional minute priced at 0.5 yuan. The maxim fee for 24 hours is 180 yuan. There are no taxes, insurance or other fees to pay.

After downloading the Evcard app to a smartphone, users can easily find nearby service points, available car types and mileages.

A car can be booked for an appointed time, and the user can unlock the car with the app. When returning the car, a user has only to press “return” on the phone and pay the fee through online payment platforms.

First-time users must register to open an account, providing ID card number and driver’s license information. There is a deposit fee of 1,000 yuan. Each electric car has a Shanghai plate, which allows unrestricted driving in downtown areas of Shanghai at all times.

“It’s cheaper than a taxi,” said Liao Jiajia, who works at the Sanxing Digital Park and lives in the Qingpu District. “It’s green, convenient and easy for me to return the car because there are charging poles at my workplace and near my home.”

Installation of charging poles for electric cars is a priority project for Songjiang. By the end of 2017, the district plans to have 1,700 poles in operation.

In the first five months of this year, 470 poles were installed in 68 parking areas in the district. Government buildings, public institutions, state-owned companies and large public parking spots are being encouraged to dedicate areas to charging facilities and green cars. Indeed, each new parking area in Songjiang is now required to include a certain number of charging poles.

Ride-hailing

Another popular transport mode is ride-hailing, which encourages private drivers to share rides in their cars with other people via mobile phone apps. The sharing concept is aimed at reducing cost and easing traffic congestion.

Ride-hailing services have generated a lot of public controversy. Mainstream taxi drivers complain that such services are undercutting their incomes and aren’t subject to the same safety scrutiny.

There have been incidents of crime associated with people booking rides with drivers they don’t know.

“I still think it’s a trend in the right direction,” said a driver surnamed Wang, who is part of a ride-hailing platform. “I can earn some extra money, passengers can save time and money, and the environment benefits.”