1,000s of shared bikes pulled from Guangzhou’s rivers

China’s bike-share firms Mobike and Ofo recently pulled more than 3,100 bikes thrown in rivers around South China’s Guangzhou.

Both companies said they would not be replacing the bikes in response to local government pressure to reduce the number of shared bikes on the road.

Mobike announced on Wednesday it has recovered 1,178 bicycles from rivers around the city over the past two weeks, 61 percent of which were Mobikes.

About 300 Mobikes were beyond repair and would be recycled, the company said.

Ofo began dredging area rivers for its yellow painted bikes in April. So far they have found nearly 2,000 bicycles, most of which would be scrapped.

“Most of the bikes were thrown into rivers at night in urban village areas,” an Ofo employee told media.

To combat the trend, Ofo said they are developing a user credit system. Mobike has a similar system in place.