[sustran] Fwd: Shanghai to increase bike ban

[Barter, Paul]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8113685%25
5E1702,00.html
The Australian newspaper website, breaking news section, 09dec03

Shanghai to increase bike ban
>From correspondents in Shanghai


CHINA'S biggest city plans to ban bicycles from all major roads next
year to ease congestion brought on by a wave of private car ownership,
official newspapers said Tuesday.

Police will also raise fines tenfold for such cycling infractions as
running red lights, Shanghai Daily reported. Such measures aim to
"control the number of bicycles on city streets," it quoted police
official Chen Yuangao as saying.
The proposed ban, which extends restrictions already in place, has
already met with protests by some city officials and members of the
city's cycling population, the paper said.

"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, with an urban population of about 20 million, has some 9
million bikes, the paper said. Numbers of new cycles in the city grew by
1 million this year, it said.

Bicycles were long kings of the road in China, hailed by the country's
communist leaders as the perfect proletarian transport: cheap, efficient
and egalitarian. Like other cities, Shanghai, which boasted some of
China's earliest bicycle factories, set aside special bike lanes on main
roads and built bicycle parking lots outside offices, schools and public
buildings.

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.

That accounts for only a small percentage of vehicles on the road,
though: Private automobiles are outnumbered six to one by busses, taxis,
government cars, and commercial vehicles, according to the official
newspaper Liberation Daily.

City officials have attempted to rein in numbers of new cars by raising
registration fees and restricting access to the city center.

Nevertheless, police officials cited the need to control two wheelers as
the key to reducing gridlock, accusing them of ignoring traffic lights
and occupying vehicle lanes.

"Bicycles put great pressure on the city's troubled traffic situation,"
Shanghai Daily quoted Chen, the police official, as saying.
 
 (c) The Australian 

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