The bicycle

Nearly 150 years ago, the first recognizably modern bicycle was mass produced in England. Today, it's estimated that there are more than one billion operational bicycles in the world (and about half of them are in China). Few inventions can claim to have survived 150 years - and perhaps only much simpler tools (eg. shoes and knives) have remained more ubiquitous in the same period.

The bicycle is a marvellous machine. A reasonably fit person can travel nearly four times faster on a bike than on foot - and unlike other modern forms of transport such as automobiles or trains, no external energy sources are required. If we were to ever enter a post-apocalyptic world where we lose access to electricity and fossil fuels, the bicycle would reign supreme as the most effective mode of transport.

I've always been a fan. When the first Mobikes started appearing on the streets of Shanghai in 2016, I was one of the earliest adopters. (Back then, there was no QR code to scan on the bikes - we had to open the mobile app, manually find an available bike on the map, and book it for use. Then we had to go out on the street to find that specific bike.)

There are a few reasons why I haven't yet bought a bike in Shanghai:

• I used to live in the city center, where multiple metro stations were within a 10-minute walk.
• Shared bikes have become ubiquitous.
• Nice bikes are prime targets for thieves. (I have a friend who had three bikes stolen within one year while we were studying at Oxford.)

Now that I live in the suburbs and shared bikes have become less readily available (especially when I might need them in the evening at a metro station), I've begun to consider whether buying one would be a worthwhile investment.

New technology seems close to solving the thievery problem. If there's some way for me to hide an Apple AirTag in a bike, then I could track it anywhere even if someone steals it.

In fact, if it were up to me, Apple should forget about their planned Apple Car - instead, they should develop an Apple e-Bike with 100km range per charge, iOS/iPhone integration, a hidden AirTag already installed into the frame, and a solar panel to power the GPS/location chip. If this product existed, I'd be the first in line to buy one.

I've seen only two problems with the bicycle as a machine:

• Unlike most automobiles, it doesn't protect against the elements. There's no air conditioning and excessive sun/rain/snow can all be bad as well.
• Unlike most automobiles, its capacity is just one rider.

Then I discovered that bike trailers exist, which can mostly solve the above problems for my one-year-old daughter if I need to take her somewhere on a bike.

In any case, I'd say that a bike is a worthwhile investment that provides about the same level of utility as a good backpack. Perhaps it's time I did some research on rate of bike theft in Shanghai - there are video surveillance systems everywhere, so maybe it's not as bad as in western countries. If this is true, I think it's time I invested in one.