9 million bicycles banned to make way for 200,000 private cars--PROGRESS

Here's two articles about China's preference for the car over the bicycle, and partly explains why China's oil imports were up nearly 40% in the first six months of 2004, moving it ahead of Japan as the world's second largest importer of oil. Only 11 years ago, China was an oil exporter. For more on that, see the Time link at the bottom. China has over 4 times the population of the U.S. and most aspire to American style car ownership. I don't criticise them for this, but obviously our old earth just can't handle it. It means the end of the world as we know it.

Bike ban for Shanghai
Tuesday, December 9, 2003

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Shanghai plans to ban bicycles from its major roads next year, to make more room for cars, official newspapers have said.

<snip>Shanghai, with an urban population of about 20 million, has some 9 million bikes, the paper said. Numbers of new bicycles in the city grew by 1 million this year. <snip>

<snip> In recent years, though, Shanghai has developed into a center of China's burgeoning auto industry, and growing affluence has spurred private car buying. Numbers of private vehicles in Shanghai nearly doubled to 142,801 at the end of last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The figure is expected to top 200,000 by the end of this year, according to Shanghai media reports. <snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/12/09/china.bike.ban.ap/

China Ends 'Bicycle Kingdom' as Embracing Cars

<snip> China is signaling the beginning of the end of its status as the world's "bicycle kingdom" as an emerging middle class increasingly forgoes the clean and energy efficient transport in favor of the car.

Beijing this month cancelled its bicycle registration requirements, a move viewed by the state press as highlighting the nation's full fledged entry into "car society" and the demise of the bicycle as a "transportation tool."<snip>

<snip>"The government doesn't really care about bikes. They do not have a policy for encouraging bicycle riding," Amanda Cui of the Beijing environmental group, the Global Village, told AFP.

"In fact they often discourage bike riding. They want to encourage private cars and public transportation. The government's car policy is viewed as a pillar of the economy and will not change because of environmental concerns."

But the rise of auto emitted pollution is growing at an alarming rate in Chinese cities.

China is the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the price of oil could soon become prohibitively high for many of China's car owners. <snip>

http://www.china.org.cn/english/environment/111923.htm

Also see...
http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501041025-725174,00.html

To park them all. Guess they will be getting lots of parking ramps.

"Beijing’s bicycle lanes, once some of the nicest and safest in the world, have increasingly been transformed into motor vehicle lanes or parking areas, much to the dislike of those who still rely on the bike."

this country over.

God, it's awful.

...be able to get around? Even if you were to take the pollution factor out of the equation, the majority of bicycle users wouldn't be able to afford a car. I don't have any idea what the public transportation situation is in China, but I would bet my last dollar that it can't support an increase in 9 million users in Shanghai or however many million users in Beijing.

An all around lose/lose proposition. Keep the poor oppressed and create more globe-damaging pollution. What the hell are they thinking? Smacks of corporate dominance.

I'm not sure what to make of this, should China stay in the 19th century forever?

either from the point of view of the world petroleum supply or just figuring out where to put them. (I've been to China, and it makes Japan look like the wide open spaces!)

Encouraging massive use of private cars at the expense of ecologically sound and affordable bikes and better public transit is a short-sighted move.

When I was in China in 1990, transportation consisted of bicycles, pedicabs, a few private cars, rundown and overcrowded buses, and underdeveloped subway systems. For the same money that it costs to build highways, they could have built worldclass subway systems for their major cities.

Massive auto use SO doesn't make sense that, knowing how the Chinese government works, I wouldn't be surprised if the officials aren't getting massive bribes from the auto companies.

big time. They have pretty much linked all the major industrial areas in So. China with a very modern super-hiway system. What's missing are cars. But I suspect that's changing. All of the major automotive manufacturers are jumping into China....it's the last great market to be tapped.

That said, this is totally insane. Bicycles are a low cost, efficient, and healthy alternative for city transportation. Sadly, I think it's all about image and the stigma of a modern city that has a majority of people using bikes as a priamry transit method. I can see modifying the rules to accommodate vehicles, but this seems to be going way overboard. And it will make the South China haze worse.

Another buck a gallon and I'll be pedalling 14 miles one-way to work. And while you say "Sure ya will, Jawn..." I gotta tell ya, on what I make, $3 a gallon means the truck has to stay parked 4 days a week, else I won't make my other bills.Now, sunday is one of those days, so, that leaves M-T-W or W-TH-F....

Even so, our roads are the most densely packed on earth.

Fortunately we have a magnificent public transport system -- a vast underground railway system, trams, elevated electric trains, double decker buses, minibuses, ferries, cheap taxis, a mountain tram and even an outdoor escalator going from the business district up the mountain to a large residential area. Owning a private car here is idiocy. It takes you twice as long as public transport, and a half hour of parking costs far more than the public transport fare.

and still the main streets and expressways are jammed. (Two months ago, I took a trip out of Tokyo that was doable only by inter-city bus, and the ten miles to the city limits took an hour.)

I'd hate to think what Tokyo would be like if the other 80% of the population started driving everywhere. In fact, there couldn't be a city, because you'd have to tear everything down to build roads.

There's no way that a highway system could match commuter trains running every three minutes at rush hour.

too bad they are not pushing hybrids or all electric.