Harsh New Penalties for Naughty Mobike Users

By Daniel Plafker

China’s explosive love affair with shared bicycles has produced some interesting phenomena over its short history. For more than two years now, the mutilated, multicolored corpses of abandoned bikes piled haphazardly in city streets have become a familiar sight of daily urban life. Sabotage, abuse, vandalism and destruction are just some of the problems that have plagued the industry. Bikes have been hurled into roadways and dumped into rivers – even piled in front of the emergency vehicle lane of a Beijing hospital.

But the days of impunity for China’s shared bike users may soon be coming to an end. Mobike has just announced important upcoming changes to their social credit system that are designed to keep repeated offenders in check, introducing heavier penalties and fines for those who misuse the service, the Beijing Morning Post reports.      

Under the changes, users will be given a social credit score of 0-1000 and be sorted into five categories based on their behavior. Riders will lose points for ‘uncivilized behaviors’ such as parking bikes in off-limits areas, blocking sidewalks or roadways, vandalism, theft, unsafe riding and other forms of bicycle barbarism. Points are granted for each well-behaved ride and (gasp!) turning snitch and ratting on your fellow Mobikers by reporting violations.

READ MORE: The Rise of Bike Sharing and China's Love Affair With Cycling

Maintain a score of 500 points or above? Congratulations, you will receive perks like early access to new app features and cash rewards for your good behavior. But dip into the ‘Fair’ category (300-500) and you will start to feel the orange wrath. Your rental fares will double: RMB2 for every half hour in most cases. On top of this, you will be locked out of features like early bike reservation and will lose coupon and discount privileges when adding credit to your account. Fall into the shameful abyss of the ‘Poor’ category (0-300) and God help you. Degenerates who find themselves at these depraved depths will be charged 100 times the normal fare – RMB50-100 per ride, depending on the bike model you choose. Scores will be reevaluated every month.

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