Bikes the best way to handle our city's traffic
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According to relevant statistics, there are 9 million bicycles in Beijing. If that's a fact, then there's nearly one bicycle for every two people.
Where are they all?
I suspect that they are neglected and gathering dust in cycle racks around the city while their owners hop on the underground or get behind the wheel of a car.
What a waste. Because cycling is the best way to explore Beijing. It's also good for commuting and is practical for shopping.
Before I arrived in the city in August, I imagined the streets would be crowded with bicycles. I would simply join a phalanx of cyclists and be swept along as if I were in the peloton of the Tour de France.
The reality was disappointing. Cars dominate the roads, motorists park in cycle lanes and taxis use them as rat runs. Electric scooters pose a silent but deadly threat to push-bikers. A scooter rider swerved past me at speed almost knocking me off my bike on Huixin Dongjie.
On another occasion, I was crossing Anyuan Lu. It was dark, and like most Beijing cyclists I had no lights on my bicycle. The traffic lights were green and I was pedaling across. I didn't hear or see the black, unlit scooter coming west along Anyuan Lu toward the intersection. At the last moment we glimpsed each other and avoided a smash.
Lesson learned. I had to find cycle lights.
My local cycle repairman couldn't help. His customers didn't bother with lights. So far as I could see, the only bicycles in Beijing with lights were veteran machines such as Flying Pigeons with dynamo-operated lamps - which is fine when you're pedaling but useless when you stop at a crossroads and your lamp goes out.
A few days later, I spotted a cycle shop on Anding Lu. Sure enough, it sold cycle lights, but they were expensive. After haggling with the owner I got the price down to 160 yuan, exactly twice the price I had paid for my second-hand Forever cycle.
The cycle shop mechanics fitted the LED lamps. Now in the dark no one can miss me. My bicycle is lit up like a Christmas tree with flashing lights.
Bicycles are not only practical in Beijing, they are romantic.
Have you noticed how many young men carry their wives and girlfriends on the back of their machines?
My wife took one look at the seat I had fitted on the rear rack and refused point blank to get on. But a brave colleague accepted the offer of a lift to the swimming pool.
It strikes me as ironic that in the developed nations cycling has become a popular, even trendy mode of transport. British Prime Minister David Cameron used to cycle to the House of Commons. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, is frequently pictured in his cycling helmet and shorts.
It's quicker to cycle in Western cities than drive or take the bus. When I commuted by bike in Glasgow I could cover the five miles into the center of town in about 25 minutes, which was faster than the bus.
Here, Beijingers seem to aspire to owning cars and joining 4.7 million other vehicles on the city's roads. Eventually, Beijing will reach gridlock.
Much better to invest in a bike for your health and for the environment. That's why I welcome Beijing municipal government's plan for a cycle-sharing system. The idea is to provide 50,000 bicycles for commuters at 1,000 locations across the city. Get people out of their cars and onto bicycles. It makes sense.
Similar cycle-sharing schemes operate successfully in Paris and London. Taken along with plans to increase parking costs and impose congestion charges on drivers who use their cars to get to work in the city center, these measures could help beat traffic snarl-ups.
It may even lead to a bicycle revival in Beijing. Wouldn't that be grand?
