Bike rental deposit gets complaints

A bike-sharing program implemented more than one year ago in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, has been criticized of discriminating against people from other regions.

A migrant worker surnamed Liu, who works in Xi'an, said he would like to used the public bicycles but the higher cash deposit stopped him and his colleagues from using the program.

Local residents who want to rent the bikes must show their ID cards to the rental company and pay a 200-yuan ($31) cash deposit.

However, people from other cities have to provide their ID cards plus a 700-yuan cash deposit.

The fee for using the bikes is an additional 125 yuan.

China Daily learned that some 1,500 people have received bike rental cards since the program started in April 2011 and only 3 percent of bike rental cards were used by people from other cities.

People thought that the conditions seemed like regional discrimination.

The firm operating the program, Xi'an Jingjian Public Bicycle Co, said the higher deposits were for bike damage and losing.

"We can easily find residents who break or lose the bikes with their addresses, but it is difficult to find people from other cities. So we have to set a higher deposit in order to decrease our losses," a staff member at the company said.

China Daily learned that other Chinese cities that have implemented bike-sharing programs had similar policies for local residents and people from other places.

Guangzhou, Guangdong province, has a 300-yuan deposit to rent bikes for both local residents and tourists. Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, has a 200-yuan deposit for both residents and tourists.

Xi'an Jingjian Public Bicycle Co said that the policies were approved by the local government and it will try to adjust its policies.