Cars as a primary mode of transportation are obviously unsustainable, that goes without question. Yet, I see very little recognition of that in North America.
You basically elaborated and confirmed what I said in my comment.
CPC is quite happy to have cars. Cities are all designed to accommodate cars first. Everything is now built to the scale of cars. It’s similar to the US, although an initial observation may not notice because there are no miles of strip malls or highway exits full of fast food restaurants.
Inside China Daily HQ, there are old issues posted on the walls. One photo struck me, as a new person in China. It was a mob of people on bicycles. It looked like a school of mackerel or a Where’s Wally illustration. The entire frame was full of bicycle commuters.
I asked around and learned that until the 1990s, owning a bicycle was considered a sign of middle-class respectability The entire workforce was riding to the office on bicycles.
The CPC, for whatever reason, allowed cars to dictate city planning and replaced that bike-centric society.
Many people still commute via bicycle and/or moped, and I’d would say that Chinese bicycle lanes are second to none, but as someone who commuted by bicycle in Shanghai, bikes are secondary to cars in both priority and prestige. Also, the bicycle lanes are a total free-for-all, subjecting “the poors” to various dangers that car drivers never have to deal with.
Chinese people love cars and aspire to car ownership, and the CPC encourages this through its city plans and development priorities.
All that said, if there is a spike in oil prices or some other situation that prohibits car travel, the average Chinese person has more and better options than the average US person. Moreover, should the CPC decide tomorrow to outlaw personal car ownership, people would not be totally stranded
Right, that’s all fair, but my understanding is that there’s also excellent subway in all large cities, and great bus service. Also, my impression was that China used similar city planning to USSR with microdistricts where you have necessities near by and don’t need to drive to do common things like buying groceries. Is that still the case in your experience?
Yes the subways are pretty good. The busses are less good. South Korea is, in my experience, the gold standard for public transport, but China’s putting a lot of money into these things too.
The microdistricts thing is exactly what they do. Essentials are walking distance from residential blocks. In older neighborhoods it’s great. In newer districts it’s not always conveniently done. Often those things get put into a western-style mall that becomes a magnet for car traffic. Richer, newer neighborhoods will be much more car-centric than poorer ones, and subway stations are inconveniently spaced out. younger people ride sharebikes to these inconvenient locations. Many of these subway stations have nothing useful nearby.
The result is that people must pay a huge premium for housing close to a subway station. I was surprised to see hordes of people walking a mile to a subway station that I lived next to in outer Shanghai (Tangzhen station). And across the street, close to the subway station, there were extremely rich people who never used public transport.
As often happens in China, things are built and established without much thought for the end users’ experience
Definitely less ideal than it could be, and shows the problems that inequality creates where rich people end up hogging housing near subways while also using cars. Still, definitely much better than most places in North America.
Cars as a primary mode of transportation are obviously unsustainable, that goes without question. Yet, I see very little recognition of that in North America.
China has the same problem… However, China is better poised to unilaterally get rid of cars if it was desired
Not really, China has excellent public transit while the number of cars allowed is actually controlled. If you want to get a car you have to apply for a permit get on a wait list https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201801/15/WS5a5be64fa3102c394518f1e9.html
You basically elaborated and confirmed what I said in my comment.
CPC is quite happy to have cars. Cities are all designed to accommodate cars first. Everything is now built to the scale of cars. It’s similar to the US, although an initial observation may not notice because there are no miles of strip malls or highway exits full of fast food restaurants.
Inside China Daily HQ, there are old issues posted on the walls. One photo struck me, as a new person in China. It was a mob of people on bicycles. It looked like a school of mackerel or a Where’s Wally illustration. The entire frame was full of bicycle commuters.
I asked around and learned that until the 1990s, owning a bicycle was considered a sign of middle-class respectability The entire workforce was riding to the office on bicycles.
The CPC, for whatever reason, allowed cars to dictate city planning and replaced that bike-centric society.
Many people still commute via bicycle and/or moped, and I’d would say that Chinese bicycle lanes are second to none, but as someone who commuted by bicycle in Shanghai, bikes are secondary to cars in both priority and prestige. Also, the bicycle lanes are a total free-for-all, subjecting “the poors” to various dangers that car drivers never have to deal with.
Chinese people love cars and aspire to car ownership, and the CPC encourages this through its city plans and development priorities.
All that said, if there is a spike in oil prices or some other situation that prohibits car travel, the average Chinese person has more and better options than the average US person. Moreover, should the CPC decide tomorrow to outlaw personal car ownership, people would not be totally stranded
Right, that’s all fair, but my understanding is that there’s also excellent subway in all large cities, and great bus service. Also, my impression was that China used similar city planning to USSR with microdistricts where you have necessities near by and don’t need to drive to do common things like buying groceries. Is that still the case in your experience?
Yes the subways are pretty good. The busses are less good. South Korea is, in my experience, the gold standard for public transport, but China’s putting a lot of money into these things too.
The microdistricts thing is exactly what they do. Essentials are walking distance from residential blocks. In older neighborhoods it’s great. In newer districts it’s not always conveniently done. Often those things get put into a western-style mall that becomes a magnet for car traffic. Richer, newer neighborhoods will be much more car-centric than poorer ones, and subway stations are inconveniently spaced out. younger people ride sharebikes to these inconvenient locations. Many of these subway stations have nothing useful nearby.
The result is that people must pay a huge premium for housing close to a subway station. I was surprised to see hordes of people walking a mile to a subway station that I lived next to in outer Shanghai (Tangzhen station). And across the street, close to the subway station, there were extremely rich people who never used public transport.
As often happens in China, things are built and established without much thought for the end users’ experience
Definitely less ideal than it could be, and shows the problems that inequality creates where rich people end up hogging housing near subways while also using cars. Still, definitely much better than most places in North America.
That’s a low bar!
Sure, transit in Europe is generally a lot better. I definitely agree that it would be better if China was copying that instead of the car culture.