The quintessential Chinese scene of a boulevard full of bicyclists may soon be replaced with a Los Angelean sprawl of automobiles. [fark]
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The quintessential Chinese scene of a boulevard full of bicyclists may soon be replaced with a Los Angelean sprawl of automobiles. [fark]
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Uh, “quintessential” is not the right word. Obsolete stereotype more like it – obsolete by at the 5 years I’ve been in China, plus probably another five. China gave up the bike a long time ago, the only thing slowing it down is peoples ability to purchase a car.
The author seems to have had no clue where he was going. Korla is a relatively brand new city constructed by the Chinese government for the oil industry. It was never built with fleets of bicycles in mind. I lived in that province, Xinjiang, as well, and another reason bicycles aren’t so big there is that the local Turkic minority, half the population, always liked donkey and horse carts more. They were never into bicycles.
A desire for sustainable transportation has come about in the West only long after cars became attainable by average citizens, and then only after average citizens slowly learned of the hidden costs. Why should we expect the developing world to skip any of this process?