Modern Beijing is criss-crossed by a grid of enormous 6 to 12-lane roads like motorways/runways! There are an awful lot of cars and taxis, quite a lot of bendy buses, and a lot of bicycles (though not quite as many as I had expected). To give you a rough idea, at traffic lights there is usually a posse of 5-15 cyclists and a similar number of pedestrians.
What strikes us is how much more predictable and how much less aggressive the road behaviour is here, compared with London where I say a little prayer of thanks each day when I arrive home safely. Every road has a cycle lane along both sides and by lane I mean a whole lane, as wide as the other lanes. Mopeds and pedestrians also use these lanes (and buses and taxis can pull in when they need to pick up/drop off) but everyone coexists calmly. Sometimes these lanes are separated from the road by a reservation; other times not.
In China you drive on the right. By necessity (because of the width of the roads and the infrequency of opportunities to cross) it is absolutely acceptable to cycle the wrong way up a road. Where the cycle lane is part of the road those cyclists going the wrong way hug the inside and those going the right way move out (left) towards the traffic. Where the cycle lane is completely separate the reverse is true: cyclists treat the lane as a road and keep right. There is some scope for confusion at junctions but people just behave nicely and somehow it works.
The only thing that's a bit unnerving is that, when cyclists have a green line to go straight across a cross-roads, right-turning vehicles are also on green and have to cross the cycle lane. Ditto traffic joining from the right. A bit of nerve is required here. Our way of handling this is to look both ways and hold our line whilst covering our brakes just incase. Chinese cyclists seem either to give way to the larger vehicle or to plow on without so much as a glance. Either way the driver will tend to be looking for cyclists and will give way rather than risk hitting anyone. The few drivers that are more pushy usually give warning by hooting.
As you cycle you see Beijingers trying to hang on to the communities that have been carved up by all the road-building. Early evening is the best time: people walk their little woofer dogs (we even saw a poodle having its bum wiped) or go out for supper and many middle-aged and elderly citizens sit next to the motorways I mean roads playing mahjong or cards.
2 comments:
I'm just in NY this week with my mates Gabe and Terry, and they've started putting in proper bike lanes here too--separated by a kerb from the traffic. They're brilliant, if shockingly underused (it seems).
Wish we had them in London!
The stuff about cycle lane etiquette and cars crossing it is interesting.
Probably the most dangerous part of my daily cycle ride is along the "safe confines" of cable street cycle lane, where both cars and pedestrains cross at will without looking, signalling, anything. I think it's to do with China being historically bike-led transportation so they're used to/expect the presence of cyclists around them. Consequently they (novel concept here) LOOK before moving
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