BEIJING, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Bike-sharing companies will charge users a dispatch fee if they park and lock bikes outside parking areas in central Beijing from June this year, the Beijing Youth Daily reported Tuesday.
Four popular bike-sharing companies, Mobike, Ofo, Bianlifeng and DiDi, have implemented such a parking rule and marked no-parking zones on their mobile app maps.
A total of 156 bike parking spots and 17 no-parking zones have been set up around the Forbidden City and the Wangfujing shopping areas, according to the authorities of Beijing's Dongcheng District.
If shared bike users park outside a designated parking zone, their mobile apps will send out a warning message for the first violation. They will be charged a dispatch fee of two yuan (about 0.29 U.S. dollars) for the second violation, and five yuan for the third and subsequent violations, the newspaper said.
The rental fee is generally one yuan for a 15-minute ride.
Dongcheng District has marked 6,100 sites for parking bikes with electronic fences. According to the newspaper, 106 sites near subway stations, hospitals and stores will pilot the new parking rules.
Xicheng District will also implement the new parking rules with bike-sharing companies, the newspaper said.
Beijing has registered nine bike sharing companies and more than 1.9 million shared bikes as of the end of April.
China's bike-sharing business has grown rapidly. It has helped ease traffic jams and promote a healthy lifestyle, but also caused new problems such as random and arbitrary parking that created challenges for city management.
Many cities have set a limit on the number of shared bikes.
