The city of Dujiangyan, in China's Sichuan province, initiated a system in April, offering bicycles for use free of charge. But now, only 2 of the bicycles are in adequate condition – out of a total of 69 bikes that are available.

When the initiative was launched, the organizer said the city had built 52 sites for the bicycles, with 500 bikes in total – aiming to offer an environmentally friendly means of transportation.

But members of the public have not been using the bicycles, with some saying that the procedure for borrowing and returning a bike is time consuming, and many bikes have been damaged.

Wu Zhenxi, a 73-year-old retired engineer, said that residents had originally found the system convenient, but that he had not used one of the bikes in recent two months – as most of them are broken, and many of the bicycle stops where you can pick up a bike are out of service.

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