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Beijing
Beijing is the political capital of the People's Republic of China. It has been a focal point for the country's massive economic upheaval in recent years, expanding rapidly in population, sprawl, and pollution. Though such growth offers Beijing an opportunity to be a pioneer in sustainable development, more often than not short-term concerns have been allowed to prevail over long-term ones. China's leaders have come to think of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as a critical opportunity to present the country's new face to the world.
"No Bikes No Beijing"[1]
As Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 film, The Last Emperor, recounts, the child emperor Puyi was so enamored with his bicycle that he had the Forbidden City modified to allow him to ride around more easily.[2] After him, bicycling exploded among Chinese across different social strata as an efficient and inexpensive means of transportation.
The hordes of bicycles that ruled Beijing's streets even two decades ago, however, are quickly becoming the stuff of nostalgia. In the 1990s, around half a billion bikes were still in use throughout the country. At the time, families in Beijing chose bicycles for 60 percent of their trips. By 2007, that figure was down to 20 percent. The culprit? Every day, a thousand more cars hit the pavement. As a result, bicycling has become a perilous affair on streets where vehicles predominate and traffic laws are poorly enforced. But only a few of those who have stopped biking can afford a car. The vast majority are forced to dismount by the rising danger in the streets and the worsening air quality of the city. Recently, even prominent leaders within the environmental community and the bike industry have decided to stop riding, citing the increased hazards.[3]
Many observers are tempted to applaud this transformation as the outcome of newly-acquired affluence and to reject the memory of bicycle-packed thoroughfares as a sign of former poverty. But many press accounts tell a different story. Immersed in congestion and gridlock, residents feel betrayed by the false promise of automobiles. The city center comes to a standstill at rush hour, and the air is dangerous to breathe. Returning to bicycles becomes harder and harder with every new car.
"We Chinese have a special feeling for bicycles, and cars have brought catastrophic damage to our society and our environment," says Mr. Wang Yong, who runs a new citywide bicycle rental business in Beijing. "Every civilized citizen has to be aware ... that we have to bring bikes back into our daily lives."[4]
Worsening biking conditions are producing a popular backlash. In a recent incident, an unidentified "foreign auntie" stopped her bicycle in front of a Beijing motorist trying to drive down the middle of one of the city's precious few bike lanes. The driver grew furious. He got out of his car, picked up her bike, and threw it down on the pavement. The "foreign auntie" stood her ground, and finally he got back behind the wheel and drove around her. When China's news media picked up the story, urged on by networks of bloggers, the public outcry was such that the offending driver made a television apology for his rudeness. He did not, however, apologize for driving in the bike lane. [5]
Olympian Smog
Since 2001, when the International Olympic Committee voted to hold the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the city has been busy in preparation. As they make an ambitious bid for international stature, China's leaders believe that the Olympics represents a coming-out party for the a new world power. Still, China's catastrophic pollution, along with widespread poverty and a habit of human rights lapses, means that there is much in the eyes of the world that will need to be overcome. Rushed by the approaching date, Chinese planners are opting for merely temporary improvements rather than sustainable, long term ones.
Ordinarily, pollution in Beijing can reach five times the concentration that the World Health Organization considers safe.[6] For Olympic athletes, the air quality threatens to affect performance in the Games. United States athletes, for instance, may be urged to wear protective masks for breathing at all times when not competing.
When athletes and spectators descend on the city, officials will be restricting the use of cars and shutting down factories. Such measures are not sustainable in an economy that has increasingly committed itself to automobile-oriented streets and dirty factories. It seems unlikely that they will be any more than a brief pause along the road to worsening pollution and congestion.
As one engineer in Beijing told the New York Times, "It is like you invite some guests to your home, and hide all your children underneath the bed to make the house look nicer. If all the polluting factories are shut down for the Olympics, there will be a major pollution outbreak afterward when all the factories restart, right?" [7]
London, home of the 2012 Olympics, appears to be showing that another way is possible. Planners there intend to create "the first 'sustainable' Games, setting new standards for major events."[8] To that end, "we're aiming for 100 per cent of spectators to get to the Games by public transport, cycling or on foot."[9] Beijing, in contrast, is offering dedicated lanes on existing roads for Olympic automobile traffic. While it is using the opportunity to improve subway and bus lines, the emphasis has still been on temporary, car-oriented solutions.
In anticipation, Beijing has been experimenting with pollution-reducing measures. When the city tested traffic restrictions for four days in August 2007, more than a million cars were kept off the road. Traffic was noticeably lighter, but the effect on pollution was less than some had hoped.[10] In mid-2007, Beijing announced plans to build a "state-of-the-art" "emission monitoring" lab to study the effect of automobile pollution on the city's air.[11]
With such an emphasis on temporary pollution-reducing measures rather than sustainable ones, the message that Beijing will send to the world, especially the developing world, is troubling. Rather than learning from the mistakes of big cities in Europe and the United States, China appears bent on repeating them. If the planners do succeed in significantly reducing pollution for the Games, however, it may become the first step in leading them to better habits. The people of Beijing just might like the smell of fresh air enough to want it for their children.
ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK
- Cars Conquering the Bicycle Kingdom (Streetsblog, 2/2/07)
- Businessman Hopes to Bring Bikes Back to Beijing
- Beijing Bike Bully Forced to Apologize on TV
REFERENCES
Each source is referred to by the same number every time it is cited. Please keep citation style consistent.
[1] "Beijing Bike Tours." Beijing Walking Tours.
[2] "Puyi's Bicycle." Bicycle Kingdom Tours and Rentals.
[3] Geoffery York. "Cars Conquering the Bicycle Kingdom." The Globe and Mail. January 20, 2007.
[4] Peter Ford. "Return to the Bike? Hard Sell in Beijing." The Christian Science Monitor. September 21, 2007.
[5] Aaron Naparstek. "Beijing Bike Bully Forced to Apologize on TV." StreetsBlog. December 11, 2006.
[6] Juliet Macur. "Olympic Teams Vying to Defeat Beijing's Smog." The New York Times. January 24, 2008.
[7] Jim Yardley. "Beijing's Olympic Quest: Turn Smoggy Sky Blue." The New York Times. December 29, 2007.
[8] "Sustainability." London 2012.
[9] "Transport." London 2012.
[10] Jim Yardley. "Smoggy Beijing Plans to Cut Traffic By Half for Olympics, Paper Says." The New York Times. January 24, 2008.
[11] "Beijing to Build Emission Monitoring Lab." Beijing 2008. June 6, 2007.
PICTURE REFERENCES
Pictures are cited in the order they appear above. Please keep citation style consistent.
[1] By jim O'Connell via Flickr
[2]
