Startup brings bikes to Bangkok

BANGKOK - A Singaporean start-up has launched a bike-sharing service in Bangkok in a bid to transform the traffic-clogged city.

OBike's fleet of orange bicycles can be easily found around metro, skytrain stations in Bangkok, a city where few cyclists can be seen on streets.

Like similar sharing schemes in China, the bikes can be picked up and left anywhere.

Riders use the bikes by scanning a QR code on the frame with their mobile phone.

Payment is done via credit card. To use the service for the first time, riders have to pay a deposit of 899 baht ($26). The service costs about 10 baht (30 cents) for 15 minutes, but Obike said that they may adjust the fee in the future.

"We launched the station-less bike sharing service here last Tuesday," Ric Ye from OBike's business expansion told Xinhua, adding that the service is still in a trial period in the Thai capital.

OBike said they have put "some, not much," bicycles along the Sukhumvit Road, a main commercial street which is often congested, and around Chulalongkorn University and Lumpini Park.

The company said it will increase the amount of bicycles in the future according their data.

However, the company is facing challenges, particularly because drivers aren't as aware of cyclists as they are in cities in China and Europe, for example.

Ye said Bangkok's narrow roads are not suitable for bicycle parking, but added that the severe congestion could help the company.

"We think we still have chance in this city because there is demand here for 1 km and 2 km short distances transportation as the roads are congested and skytrains are crowed," Ye said, adding that it also acts as a greener solution for intercity movement.

"You don't roll out the service, you don't have any data, it is difficult to judge whether the bike-sharing scheme is feasible here," he said, adding that they are optimistic but don't expect a boom in Bangkok like the craze for bike-sharing in China's major cities and in Singapore.

Jerry Liu, a Chinese living in Bangkok, told Xinhua on Tuesday that he was so excited that he could finally try the station-less bike-sharing, which his friends back in China have used a lot.

"I tried it and I like it though the weather is hot here," Liu said.

"I think they should deploy more bicycles around the city while talking with the Thai government to make it safer for people to ride as the bicycle lanes are usually occupied by motorcycles."

Xinhua