【每天一篇经济学人】Bicycle hire 自行车租赁（2023年第47期）

文章来源：《经济学人》Jul 22th 2023 期 United States 栏目 Bicycle hire

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Over the past decade not many cities in America have won as many plaudits for investing in bike infrastructure as Minneapolis. Thanks to its extensive network of bike lanes, in 2015 it became the first (and so far only) place in America to win a place on the Copenhagenize Index, a list of the world’s 20 most bicycle-friendly cities. Yet that was not enough to save the city’s 13-year-old docked bike-share system. In March Lyft, the taxi firm which operated the scheme, known as Nice Ride, announced that because a sponsor had dropped out, it would close, and that they would begin removing the equipment.

在过去的十年里，明尼阿波利斯因投资自行车基础设施赢得广泛赞誉，美国很少有城市能与之媲美。凭借其大面积的自行车道网络，2015年它成为美国首个（也是迄今为止唯一一个）入选哥本哈根化指数的城市。哥本哈根指数包含了世界上 20个最适合骑行的城市名单。然而，这并不能拯救这座城市13年历史的站点式共享单车系统。今年3月，负责运营Nice Ride单车系统的出租车公司“来福车”宣布，由于赞助商退出，他们将关闭该系统并开始撤除设备。

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Cycling is booming across America. Bike-share schemes, too, have been thriving. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, usage of six of the largest docked systems nationwide increased by 42% from March 2020 to March 2023. Last year New Yorkers took just under 30m rides on the Citi Bike scheme there; in Chicago, the Divvy scheme had 6.3m riders, up nearly 40% on 2021. And yet many schemes, like that in Minneapolis, are closing. In 2019, 109 cities were served by a docked-bicycle-hire scheme; that has now fallen to 56. What is going wrong?

骑行在美国兴起。共享单车系统也在蓬勃发展。根据美国交通统计局的数据，从2020年3月到2023年3月，全国最大的 6 个站点式单车系统的使用量增加了 42%。去年，纽约人在Citi Bike系统里骑行了近3000万次；芝加哥的Divvy系统骑行人数达到了630万人，比2021年增长了近 40%。然而，许多城市（例如明尼阿波利斯）的单车系统正在关闭。2019年，站点式单车租赁服务覆盖109个城市；现在这类城市数量已经下降到 56。问题出在哪里？

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The basic problem, says David Spielfogel, the chief business officer of Lime, which operates dockless bikes and scooters, is that the boom, funded by venture capital, is deflating like a punctured tyre, and too many operators “haven’t figured out how to run a profitable business”. Dockless-bike firms (Lime aside) were the first to go. But docked schemes are now suffering too, especially outside the biggest cities. In Minneapolis, the fact that the bikes did not function during winter may have contributed to the system’s demise. Lime, which is profitable, is one of the firms filling the void.

Lime公司（经营无桩共享单车和共享滑板车）的首席商务官戴维·斯皮尔福格尔表示，基本问题在于，单车项目的繁荣得益于风险投资，然而现在的行业像扎破的轮胎一样每况愈下，很多运营商“还没有搞清楚盈利模式”。无桩自行车公司（除了 Lime）是最先出局的。但站点式单车系统现在也受到影响，非大城市尤为明显。在明尼阿波利斯，冬季的单车无法使用可能是导致该系统关闭的原因之一。Lime公司盈利能力强，是解决这类问题的公司之一。

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Schemes like New York’s or Chicago’s are not at risk of closure. But bike advocates accuse Lyft, which runs those two systems, of not maintaining non-electrified bikes in order to push riders onto pricier e-bikes. For non-members, hiring an e-bike can rival the cost of a taxi (members who pay an annual fee get cheaper rides). While demand stays high, that might sustain networks. But it will hardly accelerate the boom.

纽约或芝加哥等城市的单车系统没有关闭的风险。但这两座城市单车系统的运营商“来福车”面临谴责，自行车倡导者谴责该公司故意不维护非电动自行车，以便将骑行者引导到价格更高的电动自行车上。对于非会员来说，租用电动自行车的费用与坐出租车的成本相当（年费会员可以享受更便宜的骑行价格）。尽管单车使用需求仍然很高，这可能会维持单车系统的运行，但不太可能加速共享单车热潮的发展。