RACIST BIKE LANES

[Lucky Luke.]

I wonder if Tony has a clue about the key role the bicycle has played in the left wing history books, solving exactly the problems which he is bemoaning.

 

Is Tony a bit thick? politically myopic? both? or just desperate to score cheap points with the electorate?

 

After 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, the bicycle soon found a strong advocate in the communist government. Whether problems in the building of a public transport system, adequate to the needs of a "socialist" society, were the practical arguments for the endorsement of bicycle traffic, or whether there were ideological reasons, may be left to further research.

 

...the bicycle received strong support by the Chinese government ... was given preferential allowances of rationed materials. The nascent bicycle industry thus was able to accomplish growth rates of 58.7% annually -ambitiously charted out in the first Chinese Five-Year-Plan.

 

The level of one million bicycles was reached in 1958. Bicycle lanes became part of urban street planning and commuting workers received financial subsidies when purchasing a bicycle. To conclude the development, up to the founding of the Peoples' Republic of China in 1949, we can define three stages:

1) There are four decades (from 1870 to 1910), when the bicycle as a technological object was known and reported on by the press in China, at least in the larger cites, but hardly any Chinese were using it.

2) For the following three decades, bicycle traffic increased, but stayed on a comparatively low level. Cycling was limited to the coastal commercial centres with a strong foreign influence.

3) Only with the establishment of a domestic bicycle industry in 1930 and succeeding price cuts, the use of bicycles slowly increased and became widely disseminated geographically.

The spread of the bicycle as a common means of transportation was further fostered, after the foundation of the People's Republic of China, by subsidies to the cycle industry and to cycle users.

 

http://www.imperialtours.net/images/inside_china/history/bicycle/bicycle_img_04.jpgToday's ubiquity of the bicycle in China has led to the widespread assumption of a cultural inclination of Chinese to bicycling. A deeper investigation into pre-1949 cycle history unveils quite a different image: it seems that economic and modern infrastructural reasons, rather than cultural preconditions, can explain China's development into the bicycle nation of the 20th century.

 

 

 

http://www.imperialt...net/bicycle.htm

Edited February 7, 2011 by Luke.

[Lucky Luke.]

More recently the Chinese government has been implementing the world's largest bike sharing programmes and ramping up the production of electric bikes, of which they have nearly 3 times as many on the roads as civilian-owned cars.

 

production of electric two-wheelers has soared from fewer than 200,000 eight years ago to 22 million last year, mostly for the domestic market. The industry estimates about 65 million are on Chinese roads. Car sales are also booming but there are still only 24 million for civilian use, because few of the 1.3 billion population can afford them. And unlike in many other developing countries, Chinese cities still have plenty of bicycle lanes, even if some have made way for cars and buses.

 

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-08/16/content_11155836.htm

Edited February 7, 2011 by Luke.

[Tumbleweed]

Chris Barron took Tony apart in yesterday's Sunday Times. If there's one thing I read on a Sunday morning, it's his So Many Questions feature on the oped page.

[Antoo]

They only cycle when they rob a bike....otherwise they walk to go an rob a bike

 

This member of the 'They' cycles as my sport of choice.........I occasionally take a walk with my kid, not to go and case peoples bikes, and have to date not stolen anyones bike.

Many of the other 'THEY"S' that I know, who cycle as a means of commuting ride Game special mtb's that they saved their pennies for.

 

Let's quit turning these threads into a they/us, whether it be black/white, roadie/mtber, male/female - debate the point, not the person

[DJR]

I agree with Tony Stalinreich(?), those cycle lanes are racist and divisive as colour has been part of it from the very start. I hope Tony becomes our new Chairman soon, he will sort things out.

 

The cycle lane is black, with a white line in the middle - dividing it into two. That's plain diabolical - we should immediately take the midline away on all our roads, then we will all be free (and freedom is what we want for all) to use it just the way we want. (This could a great bonus and also solve our overpopulation problem.) The man is a visionary!

 

Furthermore, I trust that my 2 silver coloured bikes will be allowed on the cycle path under Tony's just rule. Perhaps, if I give the bling one to SARS to pass on to one of the politburo fat cats, I will be allowed to keep the other (plain) one? Or maybe I can make the process more efficient by bypassing the middlemen and donating it directly to someone more deserving (asking nicely with a knife or a gun?).

 

I can see why Tony has no problem with the bus lane though - it's red - and that's Tony's colour. (Personally, I think red is a great colour for underpants.)

[Memetic]

There are numerous reasons to build bicycle lane infrastructure over more expensive car/bus systems. An article in American Bikes highlighted this:

 

American Bikes - Top 10 Facts

 

Although drawn from American stats this is still applicable to some degree in developing countries.