Gone with the Schwinn

Mentioning China will conjure images of bicycles not seen since 1950's Italy, floods upon floods of pedal powered vehicles lined up in massive public squares. Even 8 years ago when I came there were street lanes devoted exclusively to these dusty, rusty, two-wheeled devices. Today these lanes still exist, but the steady flow of bicycles has ceased. As China modernizes no one has the time or energy to pedal their way through life, opting instead for bigger, newer, faster and decidedly less quaint means of transport.

The ratio of mopeds and scooters to bikes must be near one to one. I'd bet there are still more bikes, but the darn mopeds zip in and out of traffic, take up so much more space and make so much more noise they're darn hard to ignore. Speeding along the edges of roads, where the pedestrians cling to the safety of the nearby sidewalk, these speed demons announce their approach by blasting a loud, and often shrill horn, not just once, but repeatedly and in rapid secession until they've passed. It doesn't matter if you see them coming and choose to step off the road, they still honk just to be sure you weren't thinking of stepping back too soon. This noise and ever present danger make the scooters much more visible, and annoying, than the bikes will ever be.

The dwindling number of pollution free bikes, coupled with the growing number of scooters and automobiles (1000 new cars hit Chinese roads every day, how's that for a statistic!), might make an environmentalist white and provide easy fodder for any China basher, but the story isn't that simple I'm afraid. The public transportation system here in Shanghai is already more developed than any city in America save perhaps New York and Chicago, and they're in the process of building 10 brand new subway lines. Without a doubt the creation of affordable public transportation has eased China's bike ways, putting more people on trains and less on their own two wheels. Besides, China still has less cars per person than America does. Although I agree it is sad to see a traditional and environmental form of transportation fall by the wayside, we can't expect people to forgo comforts that most of the western world refuses to forgo as well.

As iconic as the bike is in China, it's best days are behind it. China's world is growing too much and too fast for the little thing to keep up. They'll never disappear, what with special bike lanes and stop lights just for them, but they'll never be what they were again. A very small minority of westerners have adopted the bike culture into their daily lives here in China, but personally I was too darn scared of biking with the crazy Chinese motorists nearby, which is a sentiment I imagine many young Chinese might agree with. So if you come to China, don't expect fields of bicycles to greet you - expect Honda scooters and Volkswagen taxis.