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Supporting two-wheeled transport could ease traffic woes
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AS this year’s first blast of winter made headlines in Shanghai, another item on a new program to curb bicycle theft transported me back to a warmer time that now seems like a distant memory from China’s past. Anyone who spent time here in the 1990s or earlier clearly remembers that past, when bicycles were the main mode of private transport and ruled the streets of everywhere from top-tier cities like Shanghai down to the smallest rural villages.
Those days are mostly gone in the present, when car ownership has become one of several prerequisites for young city dwellers seeking to attract future partners in today’s Shanghai. But the growing problems of congestion and pollution are making Shanghai think twice about the desirability of too much car ownership, which perhaps is behind a growing number of recent programs like this one aimed at easing concerns about things like theft and inconvenience.
I’ve personally considered buying a nice bike or electric scooter since returning to Shanghai five years ago, but the problem of theft has always been a major deterrent. I can still vividly remember proudly buying a 10-speed Giant-brand bicycle during my first tour living in Shanghai in 2005, and all of my plans for exploring the city on the bike. Those plans quickly evaporated, however, when the bike was stolen on the very first time I took it out and foolishly thought I could leave it locked up on the street while visiting a friend in the Jing’an Temple area.
I still haven’t completely recovered from the trauma of that theft, which felt a bit like an assault on me personally even though I realize the problem is quite common. This new program probably won’t help riders of traditional pedal-powered bikes, but it could certainly encourage more people to buy electronic scooters that are equally convenient.
The new trial program is happening in Zhoupu Town in the southeastern part of Shanghai, and will see the local government give away 20,000 anti-theft chips for people to install in their scooters. The chips alert owners if scooters are moved, and can also help track down vehicles when they’re stolen. If it proves successful, the program will later be expanded to two nearby areas, including Chuansha in Pudong New Area.
I’ve heard of similar chips for cars, but this is the first I’ve heard of their use for scooters which are much cheaper. That probably reflects falling costs of operating such theft-prevention systems as the technology becomes more mature. I also expect that Shanghai is subsidizing the program to encourage use of such forms of transport to reduce road congestion and pollution.
In a similar move on that front, I’ve noticed the recent appearance near my university of a city-sponsored bike borrowing service that lets registered users take bikes from a rack outside the subway station for use nearby. Such loaner programs are already popular in many other world cities, allowing users to return bikes to their original rack when they’re done or to drop them off at any other specialized racks throughout the city.
Such efforts may ultimately help to revive a bike culture in Shanghai and other major Chinese cities. Some of my older friends still tell me how the locally popular Forever brand was the Audi of bicycles back in the 1960s and 70s, and how you often had to depend on guanxi just to order one. As late as the 1980s when I lived in Beijing, the Flying Pigeon brand of bicycle was still a local favorite, though even then it was already starting to lose its luster as more brands crowded into the market.
At this point my earlier dreams of exploring Shanghai by bike are largely in the past, partly due to the theft issue but also because public transport is much better and today’s roads are far more dangerous for bike and scooter riders than they were in the 1980s. But I do occasionally consider buying a bike or scooter or registering for a loaner program to use for shorter trips during nice spring and fall weather. This new chip program might certainly help to ease my concerns if it becomes citywide, and other efforts like the bike loan program could also persuade me and many others to take to our streets once again using these cleaner, more convenient forms of transport.
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