Back to Bicycling Basics in Beijing
To address continued air pollution and traffic congestion woes, Beijing is harkening back to its days as the "bicycle kingdom" and introducing policies to encourage more cycling. Photo by Dave-Gray.
According to The Guardian, 20 years ago, four out of five Beijing residents pedaled around China’s capital in some of the world’s best bike lanes. However, this number has decreased as private car ownership has gone up. From 1995 to 2005, China’s bike fleet declined by 35 percent while private car ownership more than doubled. Beijing is currently home to four million cars. Last year, China overtook the U.S. in auto sales, with a 46 percent increase in sales over the previous year. As cities in China have grown, bike lanes have also been eliminated to accommodate more traffic lanes for cars and buses. By all indications, it’s seemed that Beijing was well on its way to usher in a new king – the automobile.
But is the city of 17 million ready for king car? Perhaps not, as Beijing’s air quality continues to be poor (last week BeijingAir’s monitoring station reported a few ‘hazardous’ air quality days). Liu Xiaoming, the director of the Municipal Communications Commission, said in a Xinhua article that the government will “revise and eliminate” regulations that discourage bicycle use and impose greater restrictions on car drivers. Beijing already has limitations to reduce the number of vehicles on the road, continuing the odd-even license plate policy after its successful implementation during the 2008 Olympics. (And read my post about Beijing’s ban on “yellow label” vehicles here.)
The government also plans to restore bicycle lanes that were torn down, as well as to build more parking lots for bicycles at bus and subway stations to encourage additional cycling. Also an improvement: The city will make more bikes available for rent to defray the cost of owning a bike (a new one can cost as little as $20-$40) and allay fears of bicycle theft, a rampant problem in the city. By 2015, the number of bikes for rent will total 50,000. Today, only about 100 bicycle rental booths exist in Beijing, and owners are “cautiously optimistic” that the plans to increase rental bikes will be successful in reducing the number of cars on the road.
As a frequent cycler in Beijing, I am thrilled to see bicycles making a comeback and look forward to breathing in the benefits of these new policies. If successful in producing the “smoother traffic” and “clearer skies” Beijing officials are hoping for, perhaps we’ll see the return of the “bicycle kingdom,” with more cities following suit with cycling as part of a sustainable transportation solution.
[...] It also doesn’t seem to be supported by two recent articles that I noticed lately, one about a shift back to bicycle use in Beijing, and another about a new bike rental system in Shanghai. Like I said before…my observations were [...]
Hi Angel – great blog – loads of info on here – good stuff
[...] It also doesn’t seem to be supported by two recent articles that I noticed lately, one about a shift back to bicycle use in Beijing, and another about a new bike rental system in Shanghai. Like I said before…my observations were [...]
[...] Via The CityFix. [...]
With a few simple steps, we could make more livable. The first step is to change our priorities, by emphasizing access, not mobility, short rather than long distance travel, children, not cars, and livable environments, not just transport. “We need a model in which happiness, rather than consumption levels, is the measure of success.”
Public transport – the missing element in metropolitan life
As a metropolis Dhaka has the dubious distinction of not having a coherent public transport or mass transit system. With a population of 12 million the city has to rely on every kind of ad hoc and improvised transportation. Examples of improvised modes of transport are the ‘tempo’ or ten-seat mechanised three wheeler, another variety named ‘human hauler, and on a fixed route in the old city even horse-drawn carriage is being used in a limited way to ferry passengers.
The rickshaw itself is a cumbersome vehicle, particularly unsuited for plying the long routes. And it is not uncommon to find three adults riding a rickshaw, adding ugliness to the existing chaos of the city traffic. There is no easy or express communication linking the new city with the river terminal in Sadarghat. Whatever public transport services exist they run north-south and there is no transport on east-west route after withdrawal of BRTC. There was a great possibility to develop suburban railway system for which the infrastructure had been bequeathed by the British government. Suburban railway could handle a major part of the city’s traffic load, as it does in Kolkata and Mumbai. But such projects, it appears, were farthest from the minds of the successive rulers. Suburban railway running at short intervals would of course necessitate laying of parallel tracks and construction of tunnels, and these were quite feasible if due attention were paid to them. If suburban railway could be developed then many people would prefer to keep their families in the suburban towns and the city’s population would be somewhat lessened. Instead, minibuses were brought into the streets to handle the main load of city traffic — an absurdity without parallel. In the mean time the BRTC which had all along been providing a modicum of transport service was allowed to decay. The BRTC’s double-decker buses had proved to be of great utilitarian value but these are no longer seen on the roads. Although new arterial roads were built like Bishwa Road and Rokeya Sarani, they failed to yield the desired benefit because overwhelmingly it was private cars and rickshaws that ran through them.
The present situation has not emerged in a day. Lack of pro-people commitment of the successive governments was amply reflected in the state of the city’s public transport. As buses have not been developed the people have become dependent on private cars and rickshaws. Hence the overcrowding and the tailback. In this context the call by experts and environmentalists for a pro-people communication system with emphasis on public transport, as reported in an agency report published in yesterday’s New Age is timely. These groups belonging to Paribesh Bachao Andolon are not the first to try to draw government’s attention to the need for a transport system that serves the common people. But the question is whether the government lulled by World Bank’s medication is wakeful at all.
Syed Saiful Alam
shovan1209[at]yahoo.com
http://dhaka-transport.blogspot.com/
http://dhaka-transport.blogspot.com/
Cycle Training in Dhaka: More than it appears
For four hours a week, one section of a residential street in Dhanmondi comes to life with the shouts of playing children. Boys and girls, age five on up, are on bicycles—a few with training wheels, most without. Some are just learning, guided by a helping hand, while others ride confidently on their own, despite the child’s diminutive size. Teenagers join in the ride, and even a few adults come to learn.
One of the trainers leans down and asks a child, “How do you feel about riding a bike?” “I love it!” exclaims the child. “Which would you rather do, play computer games, watch TV, or ride a bike?” “Ride a bike!” “What if Tom and Jerry cartoons were on?” asks the trainer. “Then what would you rather do?”“Ride a bike!” the child repeats.
It is clear from watching the children that this child is not alone in his fascination for cycling. The other kids of all sizes are also happily absorbed.A few official helpers, themselves aged only 12-15, move around the bicycles and clusters of children with authority, ensuring that everyone gets a chance at a bicycle, helping young children learn, and checking that the bikes are in good condition. A sturdy 14-year-old circulates with a pump and tools, fixing the bicycles when they fall into disrepair. Various adults from the neighborhood also gather, mothers to watch their children with anxiety and pride, father and brothers to help with the program, or just to enjoy the evident pleasure of the children.
A CNG baby taxi driver slows to a stop in front of a large sign featuring Einstein and a Bangla slogan, “Cycling is intelligent transport.” Other vehicles slow down as the drivers and passengers stare at this unanticipated sight of children riding in the street, in a lane marked with small signs with messages such as “Let us play” and “Cycle training is going on”.
The program is run by WBB Trust Thursdays and Saturdays from about 3-5 pm (earlier in winter, later in summer) in front of its office on Road 4/A in Dhanmondi. WBB hopes the program will spread, as people see the need to make better use of all the space usually devoted exclusively to traveling and parking.
Ziaur Rahman Litu, who regularly helps with the program, comments, “Rich children have many advantages; they can get basically whatever they want. But for poor children, they may only get one meal a day. They gain no advantages in school, housing, or other areas. We need to do something for them. I can’t help them to eat, but at least when they come to our program, they are enjoying themselves, laughing, forgetting their hunger and other problems. We want to spread this joy throughout the city.”
The mother of a very overweight boy watches with concern as her child struggles to learn, unable to gain his balance due to his unwieldy body. “I know he needs to lose weight, but where can he play? At home he’s always in front of the TV,” she explains. As her son gains confidence and slowly begins to gain balance, she herself gets onto a bicycle, riding for the first time in years. Though she falls several times and rips her salwar, she is laughing with joy. Soon she sails past her son, shouting to him, “Look at your mother!”A 10-year-old girl is riding for the first time, and slowly gains confidence, only to crash into the footpath and fall over. Her mother runs anxiously over, and someone pulls out a bottle of Savlon. The girl grins, waving everyone away, and gets right back onto the bicycle. Some parents may never have seen this aspect of their children, or perhaps only on a visit to the countryside, where their children run eagerly, climb trees, and forget to whimper or complain over minor pains.
Another mother tells us that her daughter is usually silent, and never mixes with others. But when she saw that children are riding on the street, she suddenly became excited and begged her mother to take her to the class. This child, reluctant to talk to others, who has no friends, suddenly is struggling with persistence to learn, and euphoria breaks across her face as she pedals away from her trainer and rides free for the first time.
Advantages for participants include not only the chance to learn to ride a bike, or to practice the skill, or to enjoy outdoor play, but the confidence of the child helpers in carrying out their job, and the opportunity for rich and poor to mix in a safe setting. For guardians and the others who congregate on the footpaths, this is an opportunity for recreation simply in watching others, laughing at the spectacle of grown men stumbling as they learn, and at the pleasure of children.
WBB Trust explains that in a good city, children can safely walk and cycle to school, traffic systems are not all geared towards the convenience of car drivers but allow others to move safely by other means, office workers can transport themselves by bicycle without cost, and parking for cars does not take priority over play space for children.
Children need play spaces, not just in the home but outdoors, where they can move about freely and mix with other children. Relying on playgrounds and fields in the crowded city of Dhaka is no solution. If children are to have any hope of a happy childhood, with full opportunities for development, then we have to consider turning some of our less trafficked streets into playgrounds, at least a few hours a week, so once again our city can ring with the happy shouts of children.
On a Saturday afternoon, as the street again fills with children and bikes, other children are playing in the only space available for them—the roof of their luxury apartment building. As they toss a ball to each other, the ball frequently falls down on the street, amongst the cyclists. The players congregate on the roof and stare down at the children, perhaps wondering when they, too, will be able to make the street their playground.
Syed Saiful Alam
shovan1209[at]yahoo.com
http://dhaka-rickshaw.blogspot.com/2009/09/cycle-training-in-dhaka-more-than-it.html
http://picasaweb.google.com/shovan1209/FreeBicycleTrainingAtDhanmondiDhaka
odd-even license plate policy sucks, people are forced to buy their second car with different plate number, that’s why beijing’s car selling business boost in the last year.
BTW, why i cannot receive the sign up email?
this is good thinking and rule for “era”. Because there are many benefits we earn by bicycle. China’s is famous for its rules.
[...] Written by Angel Hsu. Originally posted on TheCityFix.com: [...]
[...] posted on TheCityFix.com: To address continued air pollution and traffic congestion woes, Beijing is harkening back to its [...]