Women of China : Pedal Power, Group Tries to Save Beijing's Bike Culture

Article by Li Muxin in the Chinese Publication - Women of China.

Direct Link to the article is here - http://www.womenofchina.com.cn/html/node/1011-1.htm

The community group known as Smarter Than Cars (STC) is trying to show that living and moving around Beijing is better on two wheels. The members stress both the importance of keeping Beijing's bike culture alive and how the city can grow and develop better with that culture.

Thirty years ago, Beijing was a bike haven. Nearly 80 percent of all locals rode bicycles to get around; in recent years, that number has dropped to 20 percent. Car ownership has soared,  and Beijing's traffic congestion has increased proportionally. In response to the city's declining bike culture, and to promote its revitalization, the group Smarter Than Cars was formed.

Smarter (and Better) Than Cars

The group was initiated by Shannon Bufton, an Australian cyclist who has a background in urban
design, Ines Brunn, a German trick cyclist and owner of Natooke bike shop in Beijing, and Liman Zhao, who was born and raised in Beijing. They received their inspiration to create Smarter Than Cars during a Friday evening surprise party. All of the guests had arrived on time, but only the guests who rode their bicycles had enough time to eat dinner before the party.

Realizing that bicycling was considerably more efficient than driving cars, especially during rush hour, they decided to promote bicycling by creating Smarter Than Cars and organizing group rides. The rides are held monthly, during rush hour, when traffic is at its worst. As they pass motorists, who are stuck in the traffic congestion, they show off their agility and speed by cutting through the traffic.

Getting people to opt for a more efficient means of travel isn't the only concern for the pro-bicycle group. With growing populations and more cars flooding the streets, cities are
becoming less livable and less people friendly. A livable city contributes to the positive social, physical, mental and personal development of its inhabitants. Livability, however, tends to be impaired when too many cars take up space and emit air and noise pollution.

"I remember, when I was younger,  how nice Beijing was when I could ride a bike through hutongs. There weren't any cars and the city was beautiful," Zhao reminisces during an interview. She was joined by Bufton. Beijing has more than 4.3 million cars, and that number is growing as more and more people buy cars.

Bufton says it is important that planners design cities that are livable, and an effective part of any design must be a multimodal transportation system that relieves cities of automobiles.

"In Beijing, if people put their cars door to door, bumper to bumper,  it will take up the entire space of  the Second Ring Road (62 square
kilometers)," says Bufton. "That's how  much space of the city is taken up just by cars, and how much space of the city is unavailable for living life.

"So, I personally feel the bicycle and pedestrian and public transport is a much smarter way to move people around the city, because there's more space for other activities, fresher air. As humans, we need to think about how to better set up for the future,  because it's already bad and it's only going to get worse unless we change the way we live and move around the cities."

Cars in dense urban areas also contribute to poorer air quality, which damages not only the environment, but also people's health. While cars are efficient on long-distance trips, the short-distance drives cause the most damage to theair. "During short trips, your engineis not warm and that's when your caremits the most amount of pollution,"says Bufton. "There's statistics
saying that 40 percent of all car tripsin Beijing are under five kilometers,which is a fairly short distance. So,we think that it should be reasonable for people to take at least half ofthose trips by bicycle."

Car lovers may point out that air filtration systems inside their vehicles protect them from the outside air pollution. Or so they may think! A recent study in New Zealand indicates
that air quality inside a car may be worse than the outside air.

"There's a theory we're working on that in a congested city like Beijing, where cars are lined up bumper to bumper, you have the exhaust of one car going into the car behind it, and so on and so on," says Bufton. "There is a filter in cars, but that filter doesn't filter out everything."

Even if the New Zealand study's conclusion doesn't apply directly to Beijing, Zhao says cars offer no safety from bad air quality in dense cities. "By the end of the day, people have to get out of the cars," she says. "They can't stay in the car for 24 hours a day. So, they're still going to breathe the outside air pollution. If everyone thinks that using the car is a good way to avoid bad air (and they continue to use cars), then they'll just create even worse air quality for everyone."

Changes

Weaning people off cars is no easy task, as cars are a sign of wealth and status. "I think it's a natural cycle that once you get access to a car, when you haven't had access to a car before, you'll naturally want to buy one and show it to the world," says Bufton.

There is a way for governments to create cities that allow cars and bicycles to coexist. For example, Bogotá, Colombia, is a developing city that has a vigorous transportation system. By taxing motorists, the city was able to fund its extensive bicycle network and create a comprehensive rapid transit network.

"That (bus system), together with the bike network, meant the people could move around the city without needing an automobile," says Bufton. Officials also close off parts of the city to automobiles every Sunday, and on holidays, from 7 am to 2 pm to allow its inhabitants to enjoy a car-free city. "They're very aggressive (about) their transportation policies," says Zhao. "By 2015, they want to forbid automobile usage during rush hour."

As a result of the policies and measures taken in Bogotá, the city has become a model of sustainability. "Basically, you force people (to use) public transport and bikes and you provide good infrastructure for them so they can move quickly," says Bufton.

"Then, amazingly, you find that people don't have problems with it. Cities are finding that once they promote cycling and provide the infrastructure, the communities are embracing it. There's a bicycle revolution happening around the world."

Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is widely considered to be the world's greatest city for bicycling, with more than 340 kilometers of safe cycle lanes. The city also offers services such as parking and clearing roads during bad weather. Other cities – including Washington, D.C., in the United States, where a newly constructed bicycle transit station offer bike repair, secure parking, rentals, and changing rooms – are trying to follow Copenhagen's example.

The Future

As a developing city, Beijing can decide in which direction it will head. Yet, with China's growing population and increasing car ownership, changes in the city have to be made fast. "About 20-30 percent of the population has a car and the rest of the population wants one," says Bufton. "So, how do you manage a city of so many people with that many cars? It's just not physically possible. If the government continues to encourage a car-based culture, it will be unsustainable, from a management point of view."

Although Beijing 's rapidly expanding subway system is alleviating transportation demands,the experience of riding a subway during rush hour can be harrowing.Bufton says it will be difficult to encourage people to leave their spacious cars and stand in a subway crowded with people. Bicycling, however, offers more freedom and comfort than the subway, and is amuch more flexible mode of travel than having to get on and off atspecific stations.
Creating a safe and extensivebicycling infrastructure will be lessexpensive, and bicycling can reducehealth problems, such as diabetes andobesity, which would otherwise requireexpensive medical care and facilities."There're only positive benefits topush for bicycles," says Bufton." And there are almost zero risks in (building infrastructure) for bicycles."

"Also, we're organizing rides, like the biking for the arts program we're doing with the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. We'll be riding together for an hour and visiting a gallery each month."

The group has started the JISU PK, which lets two people race each other on stationary bicycles while a computer screen tracks their progress. They plan to hold races at nightclubs to raise interest, among young people, about biking.

There may be hope for the bicycle culture in Beijing. In May, the government announced plans to create a bike-hire system to provide rentable bikes throughout the city. Yet, there is still much more that needs to be done before Beijing can become a bike friendly city again.

Although Beijing is among the cities in the world with the highest number of bike lanes, the lanes commonly become secondary car lanes and parking spaces. Bufton, Brunn and Zhao hope more bicycle supporters will join Smarter Than Cars so their demands for better road rights and more biking infrastructure will be heard.