ABSTRACT

The aim of this chapter is to scrutinise smart biking in the context of gendered innovations and as a smart city experiment. The Chinese Mobike company rolled out their first bikes in the streets of Shanghai and Beijing in 2016, and since then smart biking has spread like wildfire, particularly in China and in countries around the world. Mobike was invented by a woman, Hu Weiwei, and from the outset the pressing needs of urban residents and more convenient, sustainable, and efficient modes of transport were addressed. Based on media representations, interviews, reports, and surveys this chapter locates the origins of the biking company Mobike in the landscape of recent innovation strategies. What are the gendered implications of shared biking and Mobike design and technology? Has Mobike provided a challenge to the car-centric developments of urban mobility in China? What are the broader lessons to be learned in terms of sustainable urban transportation? In the final section Mobike is situated as an experiment in the framework of smart cities. It is argued that Mobike counts as an experimental case of disruptive-gendered innovations which feeds into challenges of sustainable urban transport and social equity.