The northern port city of Hai Phong, not too far from Hanoi, has begun trialing a public bicycle renting service, making 500 bikes available at 39 downtown spots.
Tri Nam Group JSC is operating the program with the bicycles parked on sidewalks in Le Chan, Hong Bang and Ngo Quyen districts, and available at 5,000 VND for the first 30 minutes and 1,000 VND for every six minutes after that.
To rent a bike, users have to download a mobile app, create an account and pay money into it.
Each bike has an ID, smart lock and locator for the operator to keep track of the vehicle.
Users can return the bike to any station.
It is expected that the service will be officially open within the next month. By then, users can buy daily or monthly tickets.
On the first two days of the trial period on Saturday and Sunday, 40 people rented the bikes.
Other localities to have or trial public bike sharing are Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, and Quy Nhon in the south central Binh Dinh Province.
Let’s see how HCMC residents experienced their public bicycle rental service:
