Source: CCTV.com

12-17-2007 11:17

Green transportation is an important concept in the Beijing Olympic Games due next August. The city is now promoting public bicycles, hoping that the environmentally friendly mode of transport can play an important role during and after the games.

On Sunday, the first group of public bicycles became available for rent at universities in Beijing. In Tsinghua University, six bicycle rental spots have been set up. Students can ride a bike after putting down a deposit. And they can return the bike in more than 70 rental spots in town, which operates 24 hours a day.

Public bicycle rental staff said "The rental fee is five yuan per hour, or 20 yuan a day. You can also pay 100 yuan to use the service for a whole year."

Currently the public bicycle rental spots are mainly located in the city center. They include busy areas like shopping centers, tourist spots, restaurants and hotels. However, in a city like Beijing, 70 bicycle spots fall short of what's needed to make the service convenient.

Wang Yong, Manager of Public Bicycle Rental Spot said "The public bicycles will be very convenient for our citizens only if there are many rental spots located throughout the city. I think we need at least four to five hundreds of them, with some near bus stops and subway stops."

The Beijing municipal government says it plans to expand the number of public bicycles to 50 ,000 and number of rental sites to over 200 before the Olympic Games. It says it welcomes private companies to invest in this project.

Public bicycle service has been a popular transport service in some European cities. London and Paris are especially experienced. Residents in London can use mobile phone text messages to get the pin codes to lock and unlock public bicycles. Bicycle rental companies in Paris have made their service a very profitable business by advertising on the bicycles and in the rental spots.

 

Editor:Xiong Qu