Comments on The Urban Country Bicycle Blog: The Chinese Car Obsession

Hi James, If you visit Beijing come and check out ...

2011-11-29T21:48:55.028-05:00

Hi James, If you visit Beijing come and check out what we are up to at Smarter Than Car (www.stcbj.com). We are a small organization promoting cycling in China and undertaking research on Beijing's unique (and mostly dissapearing) cycling culture.
China is changing is fast and while there is an obsession with the automobile the bicycle is also on the rise as a recreational vehicle which is good news. There are also some early adopters that are ditching their car for the bike for daily commuting. I think we are going to see some interesting changes here in the years to come.

Have Chinese lost their love for bicycling? How ar...

2011-11-18T05:17:15.383-05:00

Have Chinese lost their love for bicycling? How are bicycle sales doing? Scooter sales? Aren't the cheap, dirty, gas burning scooters banned in cities, so electric ones get around that? In Europe and the US, motorcycles have emissions regulations, so they contribute less to smog problems. Why can't Chinese display wealth and status with gold or diamonds instead of cars? Perhaps they view cars as convenient.

It will be interesting to see/read how it is in Ch...

2011-11-17T12:51:30.105-05:00

It will be interesting to see/read how it is in China these days when it comes to transportation.

Lots of cars are registered there but don't re...

2011-11-17T01:22:03.777-05:00

Lots of cars are registered there but don't really "reside" there. A little similar to Cyprus and Belize regarding yatchs...
Remember, all these places are tax heavens.

Thanks for catching that. It was supposed to read ...

2011-11-16T19:32:14.139-05:00

Thanks for catching that. It was supposed to read "779 motor vehicles for every 1,000 man, woman and child in the United States".

It is odd that those other countries have so many cars. They must attract wealthy people who own lots of cars. We'll have to ask reader Mike who who lives in Luxembourg what the deal is.

"There are just 128 motor vehicles for every ...

2011-11-16T19:10:20.454-05:00

"There are just 128 motor vehicles for every 1,000 people - compared to 779 motor vehicles for every man, woman and child in the United States."

That's a tad off... given that there are over 350m people in the USA, that translates to something like 273 billion vehicles!

Wikipedia has a table of car ownership per capita and the USA is #2, with 863 vehicles per 1000 people. (Canada is #12) The others in the top four are, oddly enough, Monaco, Luxemburg, and Liechtenstein - countries so small you could walk across them in an afternoon.

In terms of livability, widespread electric scoote...

2011-11-16T11:01:41.053-05:00

In terms of livability, widespread electric scooter use is a far better option than all of those people using cars. There wouldn't be enough space for all of them to drive cars. Electric scooters are quieter, consume less energy, take up less space for mobility and for parking, pollute less, and they are less dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists.

I would of course prefer to see widespread bicycle usage than electric scooters, but the Chinese use such little electricity relative to North Americans that they can afford to use some electricity to power their electric scooters and they would still consume far less than us.

Having said that, the danger that I foresee is that scooters are a stepping stone before buying cars. At some point their wealth will increase and these scooter riders will buy cars. It won't take long for them to realize there isn't enough space, so the government will need to step in and address the issue (like they are currently doing in the larger cities). The bigger danger is urban sprawl, but so far the Chinese have still been inclined to live in dense cities, so they do have that going for them.

I'll be interested in hearing your take on how...

2011-11-16T10:25:35.062-05:00

I'll be interested in hearing your take on how all those electric scooters affect livability, vs., say, the same number of cars, gas scooters,e-bikes, or bikes.