BIKE: Horns, and bikes in Shanghai

[Lane S. Wimberley]

Well, traffic on this list has been so light recently, I thought I'd
throw the following out.

To complement an article in the most recent Car-Free World newsletter
regarding use of car horns, I'm excited to report that yesterday for
the first time perhaps in my life, I saw a motorist use his horn as it
was intended -- to avert an accident.  As he began to proceed through
an intersection where he had the right of way to make a left turn, a
tow truck opposing him also began, apparently in a distracted or
mindless state and believing that he had a green light when he did
not.  The first driver then honked his horn -- not long and malicious,
just some short-ish but serious beeps -- and the truck stopped
(although already about 1/3 the way through the intersection).  No
accident, no anger, happy ending.  How refreshing!

And now, for something completely different...

ENN News Story - Shanghai moves to reduce bike traffic in favor of cars
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
By Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press

http://www.enn.com/news/2003-12-10/s_11166.asp

SHANGHAI, China - Bicycles were kings of the road in Shanghai for decades,
transporting young and old, lofty and lowly, through the city's streets and
markets.
Times have changed, though, and the automobile now rules supreme.
As for bikes, well, they just get in the way, according to local police.
Already barred from some major thoroughfares, bicycles will be banned
altogether from important streets starting next year, newspapers reported
Tuesday. To further discourage riders - especially those with a tendency to
bend the rules - police are jacking up fines tenfold for infractions such as
running red lights.
"Bicycles put great pressure on the city's troubled traffic situation," the
English-language Shanghai Daily quoted police official Chen Yuangao as
saying.
Yet cars, buses and taxis put pressure on the environment, argue bike
proponents, who aren't taking the proposed changes sitting down.
Vehicle emissions have become a major source of pollution in Shanghai and
other big Chinese cities, even while heavily polluting industries have been
shuttered.
Low polluting alternatives such as electric bicycles have grown more
popular, but the new rules would ban those as well. Banning bicycles could
also worsen overcrowding on buses and subways and prompt more people to turn
to automobiles, worsening the pollution problem.
"Bicycles are an environmentally friendly means of transportation that
should not be banned," the paper quoted Zhao Guotong, an official of the
Shanghai Economic Commission, as saying.
Shanghai should instead "take firm control of the increasing numbers of
private cars," Zhao was quoted as saying.
Shanghai, a city of about 20 million, has some 9 million bikes, according to
Shanghai Daily. Numbers of new cycles in the city, ranging from the
old-fashioned Flying Pigeons to flashy new mountain bikes, grew by 1 million
this year.
Bicycles are still the dominant form of transportation across China, where
most people still make less than $1,000 per year. With the Communist Party
promoting bikes as cheap, egalitarian transport, working-day China ran
almost exclusively by pedal power before increasing affluence and economic
reforms fired a desire for private cars in recent years.
Shanghai boasted some of China's earliest bicycle factories, and like other
cities, set aside special bike lanes on main roads and built bicycle parking
lots. Hordes of cyclists can still be seen in the old city center, their
tinkling bells penetrating the roar of traffic, riders' multihued rain
ponchos brightening the gray, drizzly winter days.
Yet cars and freeway development have been gradually encroaching as Shanghai
takes its place as the Detroit of China's burgeoning auto industry.
In Beijing and other Chinese cities, bikes are also being shunted aside as
car ownership grows. For now, anyway, there's no talk of banning bikes in
the capital, where bicycle access in the city is a symbol of the link
between the communist government and its proletarian roots.
In Shanghai, numbers of private vehicles - especially the Volkswagens, GM
compacts, and Buick sedans made in the city - 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.
And that accounts for only a small percentage of vehicles on the road:
Private automobiles are outnumbered six to one by buses, taxis, government
cars, and commercial vehicles, according to the official newspaper
Liberation Daily.
City officials have tried to rein in numbers of new cars by raising
registration fees and restricting access to the city center.
Nevertheless, police officials seem intent on eliminating two wheelers as
the key to reducing gridlock. Could be that in future years, the only bikes
in the city are the stationary kind found in health clubs.


_______________________________________________________________________
Lane Wimberley             8303 N. MoPac, Suite A-300  Austin, TX 78759
Wayport, Inc.                512.519.6195 (voice)    512.519.6200 (fax)