Cycling is hot, but the city has to become more friendly

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Urban traffic mode with motor vehicles is facing new challenges

The green light was on, and the mighty bicycle team drove on the bicycle lane that was separated by a fence in Chang'an Street, Beijing, and together with the traffic constitute a unique urban landscape.

Affected by the epidemic, especially after the suspension of subways and buses, bicycles, as a convenient and environmentally friendly transportation, "turn red" and enter the public's horizon as a convenient and environmentally friendly transportation.

In addition to being a travel tool this time, bicycles have also superimposed a variety of attributes such as fitness, leisure, and social. Like camping, flying trays, etc., it has become one of the most popular lifestyles of young people.

Baidu search index shows that starting on March 27, 2022, the search data of "cycling" suddenly rose, from the highest 580999 before, directly jumped to 2573119. Locate at the forefront of search index.

With the rise of the cycling boom, bicycles have become tight in the short term. After visiting a number of bicycle sales stores in Beijing, China News Weekly learned that the sales of bicycles and related equipment in the near future have increased significantly. Some popular models are basically out of stock. The waiting time ranges for 1-6 months, and some even take more than one year. In addition, the price of some classic second -hand bicycles has also increased from before.

At the same time, the urban traffic development model, which is the main body of motor vehicles in urban construction, also faces new challenges. In some cities, bicycles have survived in the "gap" of motor vehicles for a long time, and the right of road rights is difficult to guarantee.

"Red" bicycle

In the past 40 years, with the process of urban maneuverability, bicycles have gone through three development stages of leading, attenuation, and recovery in China.

In the 1970s and 1980s, bicycles were the main transportation of people's travel. China's bicycles owned more than 100 million, accounting for about one -third of the world's bicycle ownership. It is a veritable "bicycle kingdom". However, with the acceleration of urbanization into the city, especially the development of the automotive industry, the ownership of Chinese bicycles has dropped rapidly. The "Kuanma Road and Da Road Network" with the needs of motor vehicle traffic as the core has become a common road model in urban planning.

However, this road mode is considered to lack the attention of the main body of transportation- "people", and it is not conducive to the sustainable development of the city.

Jennie Liu, director of the Urban Research Center of Portland State University, has done a study of bicycle economics. She found that adding more bicycle lanes in cities will not only affect the business of shops along the street, but can promote its development. For example, a bicycle lane is laid on a street in Minnespolis, the United States, which has increased the retail sales of food streets by 52.44%.

People riding in Beijing. Figure/Figure insect creativity

Sun Jian, vice chairman of the Beijing Bicycle Club Alliance and the founder of the Tiebi Bicycle Club, told China News Weekly that in the early 21st century, most cities in China were not friendly to bicycles. Back to people's vision.

The so -called "3510" refers to encouraging everyone to walk within 3 kilometers, cycling within 5 kilometers, bus within 10 kilometers, and long -distance green driving green travel concepts.

Zhao Yixin, Dean of the Transportation Branch of the China Urban Planning and Design Institute, told China News Weekly that in the past, the larger cities in the past, in the process of urban maneuverability, the invasion of slow traffic traffic such as bicycle lanes and pedestrian trails is also the most serious. "The first -tier cities and some strong second -tier cities are the first to develop a slow system, which is a reversal of the original excessive emphasis on maneuverability development."

However, Sun Jian was cautious about the bicycle burst of fire. He believes that riding in recent times is related to the "flushing" on the Internet, which is related to the intensive reports of the media. In addition, the prevention and control measures of the epidemic have also become a "accelerator" for cycling.

Zhao Yixin believes that with the gradual strengthening of society's understanding and understanding of the "double carbon" goals, seeking a green, low -carbon travel method to alleviate the current urban traffic pressure, it has become an effective means of urban governance.

He said that in all transportation methods, cycling can be regarded as a "zero carbon" travel option.

According to research data from the Beijing Institute of Transportation Development, the use of bicycles can reduce 0.17 kg carbon dioxide emissions per kilometer than car travel. If a car user travels with a bicycle, one -ton carbon displacement can be reduced a year.

Let the cycling "return" city

Beijing has attracted much attention for building the first domestic commuting of bicycle -specific roads.

On May 31, 2019, Beijing's first bicycle -specific road was opened, connecting Changping Huilongguan and Haidian Ground Software Park, with a total length of 6.5 kilometers. 3.8 kilometers.

Zhou Yang, who lives back to Longguan, told China News Weekly at a science and technology company at the ground that after the bicycle -specific channel was completed, he added a bicycle. It took more than 40 minutes to drive at work. It only takes about 30 minutes to ride.

"You can ride on the viaduct, and the scenery along the way is also good. When going up the bridge, it helps the conveyor belt. There is a slowdown in the transmitting brush teleportation belt when going down the bridge, which is quite high -tech." He said. As of the end of May this year, the cumulative use of the bicycle's special road has exceeded 5.24 million, and the average daily cycling volume is 4500-5000 vehicles per time. According to estimates, bicycle -specific roads have contributed more than 1,500 tons of carbon reduction displacement.

The optimization of the second ring auxiliary road slowing system is also a "star project" in Beijing. Some cyclists have found that the non -motorized lanes on the second ring auxiliary road are "quietly" widening, from the original 2 meters to more than 3 meters, and the widest part can reach 3.6 meters.

In addition to increasing the width of the lane, the signal lights at the intersection have also changed, and the "left -turn signal lights" and "bicycle priority" of the exclusive cyclist's "left -turn signal light" were installed. In the past, the riders needed to wait for the signal light to turn left. It must be completed by "crossing the street". It only needs to wait once in the future, which is more secure and time -saving.

The City Road Management Office of the Beijing Municipal Communications Commission has announced that since 2021, Beijing has set up a total of 74 to the left to the left to clarify that motor vehicles, non -motorized vehicles, pedestrian traffic flow lines and pass permissions have been clearly improved.

Beijing citizens' willingness to slow down has also continued to increase. In 2021, the proportion of slow transportation transportation in the central urban area of ​​Beijing hit a new high in nearly 10 years -reaching 47.8%, an increase of 6.9%over 2017. The city's annual bicycle -sharing volume increased from 050 million times in 2017 to 950 million in 2021.

Related data show that among international cities with considerable population scale, Beijing's slow -moving transportation facilities ranked among the top, and the total size of the bicycle lane is the first.

According to the "Beijing Comprehensive Transportation Action Plan in 2022", in 2022, Beijing will set up 20 slowly tree -lined roads to increase the comfort of walking cycling. At the same time, we will create 21 "Walking Beijing" cultural travel cycling lines to promote the deep integration of slow travel and tourism.

Many interviewees believe that Beijing has always been at the forefront in the construction of a cities in the construction of a riding friendship. According to the plan, in 2025, Beijing's urban traffic strives to achieve carbon peaks, and in 2050 city traffic strive to achieve near -zero emissions.

In addition to Beijing, some cities are also exploring how to make cities ride more friendly.

In Shanghai, the 22 -kilometer Pudong Binjiang Cycling Road has become a punching place for the Shanghai riders, and the graffiti works of young artists have more fun.

In Chengdu, a 100 -kilometer -long detour green road has become one of the hottest outdoor leisure methods. Many people spontaneously launch challenges and release strategies. While the "fire" comes out, it will promote the "new" new "new" in Chengdu. Three Iron Man "-The ranked ranked in the wild camping, riding around the city, and climbing Longquan Mountain at night.

In Taiyuan, the riverside bicycle lane built by huge sums of money, 75 kilometers in length, 4 sections of net red punching fields, 52 sets of bicycle assistance systems. On the day of opening only the day, 95,000 people welcomed the cycling "punch card".

From the premise that the road space was left to motor vehicles to ensure the travel needs of motor vehicles, more space is left to non -motorized vehicles. The return of bicycles in the city is gradually promoting the changes in urban forms.

Riding should be the norm

On May 18, 2022, the General Office of the Ministry of Transport and the General Office of the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Notice on Doing the Evaluation and Evaluation of Green Travel Creation Action", which clearly listed 109 cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Sanya, etc. Green travel to create cities.

Yao Peng, deputy dean of Beijing Forestry University, said in an interview with China News Weekly that while major cities have set off a bicycle -friendly city, new infrastructure of green travel represented by cycling has been further strengthened, but some cities Insufficient considerations at the spatial level, functional level, and landscape level are not sufficient.

"The riding lanes in some cities are relatively independent and lack of overall and systematic cities." Yao Peng believes that to build a ride city, a complete city cycling network is required to support it.

In addition, the current riding trail function is relatively single, not a composite function, and it cannot be well combined with the surrounding urban environment, commercial supporting facilities, and leisure facilities.

Yao Peng also mentioned that the current riding road is relatively single in planning and needs to work hard on the landscape. "As a way of leisure and fitness, riding should be closer to nature in planning. In the field of Yutian, we should build a variety of cycling landscape systems according to local conditions. "

In addition to the lack of planning, what is even more severe is that the right to rider is still difficult to guarantee.

Sun Jian believes that the competition of road rights, especially the bicycle road rights and pedestrian road rights and motor vehicle rights. It is one of the main issues facing urban traffic management. Survival in the "seam" of motor vehicles is still common. The phenomenon of existence.

At the same time, compared to the convenience of bicycle sharing, bicycle travel also faces problems such as difficulties and parking difficulties.

In fact, whether a city is friendly to cycling depends on what kind of standards are adopted.

"In some cities, many young people have never even seen a special bicycle lane." Yang Xinmiao, deputy director of the Institute of Transportation of Tsinghua University, believes that if the standard set is too low, most cities in China are friendly, but if you There is still a lot of room for improvement to the developed countries that have been in the forefront.

Many cities are now creating a "15 -minute life circle" and "happy commuting" within 5 kilometers. Zhao Yixin suggested that when urban builders consider road construction, they should leave more space for riders, and comprehensively consider bicycle parking and care. At the same time, measures such as the "Bicycle Priority" logo and the addition of smart zebra crossing are installed to provide convenience for travel as much as possible. In Yang Xinmiao's view, in addition to creating a green travel city, in addition to a better cycling lane and more people who understand riding, they also need lightweight two -wheeled vehicles.

He told China News Weekly that even if there is no new crown epidemic, it is difficult to ensure that modern urban transportation will not be invaded in the future. Taking Belgian capital Brussels as an example, after the city was suspended due to the suspension of the epidemic, in order to solve the problem of traffic congestion and parking difficulty in communities, he introduced bicycles as commuting tools and encouraged the public to choose to travel by cycling.

Yang Xinmiao believes that only lightweight help bicycles can transform car users into cyclingers. He said, "No matter the epidemic is in or absence, the cycling should be the norm."

Author: Chen Shulian ([email protected])

Edit: Sun Xiaobo

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