Here's two articles about China's preference for the car over the bicycle, and partly explains why China's oil imports were up nearly 40% in the first six months of 2004, moving it ahead of Japan as the world's second largest importer of oil. Only 11 years ago, China was an oil exporter. For more on that, see the Time link at the bottom. China has over 4 times the population of the U.S. and most aspire to American style car ownership. I don't criticise them for this, but obviously our old earth just can't handle it. It means the end of the world as we know it.Bike ban for ShanghaiTuesday, December 9, 2003
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Shanghai plans to ban bicycles from its major roads next year, to make more room for cars, official newspapers have said.
<snip>Shanghai, with an urban population of about 20 million, has some 9 million bikes, the paper said. Numbers of new bicycles in the city grew by 1 million this year. <snip>
<snip> 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. <snip>
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/12/09/china.bike.ban.ap/China Ends 'Bicycle Kingdom' as Embracing Cars<snip> China is signaling the beginning of the end of its status as the world's "bicycle kingdom" as an emerging middle class increasingly forgoes the clean and energy efficient transport in favor of the car.
Beijing this month cancelled its bicycle registration requirements, a move viewed by the state press as highlighting the nation's full fledged entry into "car society" and the demise of the bicycle as a "transportation tool."<snip>
<snip>"The government doesn't really care about bikes. They do not have a policy for encouraging bicycle riding," Amanda Cui of the Beijing environmental group, the Global Village, told AFP.
"In fact they often discourage bike riding. They want to encourage private cars and public transportation.
The government's car policy is viewed as a pillar of the economy and will not change because of environmental concerns."
But the rise of auto emitted pollution is growing at an alarming rate in Chinese cities.
China is the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the price of oil could soon become prohibitively high for many of China's car owners. <snip>
http://www.china.org.cn/english/environment/111923.htmAlso see...
http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501041025-725174,00.html