文章來源：《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》Jul 22th 2023 期 United States 欄目 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.

在過去的十年里，明尼阿波利斯因投資自行車基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施贏得廣泛贊譽(yù)，美國(guó)很少有城市能與之媲美。憑借其大面積的自行車道網(wǎng)絡(luò)，2015年它成為美國(guó)首個(gè)（也是迄今為止唯一一個(gè)）入選哥本哈根化指數(shù)的城市。哥本哈根指數(shù)包含了世界上 20個(gè)最適合騎行的城市名單。然而，這并不能拯救這座城市13年歷史的站點(diǎn)式共享單車系統(tǒng)。今年3月，負(fù)責(zé)運(yùn)營(yíng)Nice Ride單車系統(tǒng)的出租車公司“來福車”宣布，由于贊助商退出，他們將關(guān)閉該系統(tǒng)并開始撤除設(shè)備。

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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?

騎行在美國(guó)興起。共享單車系統(tǒng)也在蓬勃發(fā)展。根據(jù)美國(guó)交通統(tǒng)計(jì)局的數(shù)據(jù)，從2020年3月到2023年3月，全國(guó)最大的 6 個(gè)站點(diǎn)式單車系統(tǒng)的使用量增加了 42%。去年，紐約人在Citi Bike系統(tǒng)里騎行了近3000萬次；芝加哥的Divvy系統(tǒng)騎行人數(shù)達(dá)到了630萬人，比2021年增長(zhǎng)了近 40%。然而，許多城市（例如明尼阿波利斯）的單車系統(tǒng)正在關(guān)閉。2019年，站點(diǎn)式單車租賃服務(wù)覆蓋109個(gè)城市；現(xiàn)在這類城市數(shù)量已經(jīng)下降到 56。問題出在哪里？

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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（經(jīng)營(yíng)無樁共享單車和共享滑板車）的首席商務(wù)官戴維·斯皮爾福格爾表示，基本問題在于，單車項(xiàng)目的繁榮得益于風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資，然而現(xiàn)在的行業(yè)像扎破的輪胎一樣每況愈下，很多運(yùn)營(yíng)商“還沒有搞清楚盈利模式”。無樁自行車公司（除了 Lime）是最先出局的。但站點(diǎn)式單車系統(tǒng)現(xiàn)在也受到影響，非大城市尤為明顯。在明尼阿波利斯，冬季的單車無法使用可能是導(dǎo)致該系統(tǒng)關(guān)閉的原因之一。Lime公司盈利能力強(qiáng)，是解決這類問題的公司之一。

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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.

紐約或芝加哥等城市的單車系統(tǒng)沒有關(guān)閉的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。但這兩座城市單車系統(tǒng)的運(yùn)營(yíng)商“來福車”面臨譴責(zé)，自行車倡導(dǎo)者譴責(zé)該公司故意不維護(hù)非電動(dòng)自行車，以便將騎行者引導(dǎo)到價(jià)格更高的電動(dòng)自行車上。對(duì)于非會(huì)員來說，租用電動(dòng)自行車的費(fèi)用與坐出租車的成本相當(dāng)（年費(fèi)會(huì)員可以享受更便宜的騎行價(jià)格）。盡管單車使用需求仍然很高，這可能會(huì)維持單車系統(tǒng)的運(yùn)行，但不太可能加速共享單車熱潮的發(fā)展。