According to the South China Post, some Chinese cities are moving to ban electric bicycles in favor of automobiles. Europeans have the luxury of hindsight in this regard, and are ironically reinstating pedestrian and bicycle dominance in urban areas. The motivation in China, of course, is the widespread belief that creating a massive car culture is the key to economic windfall for all. But there has to be a saner compromise.

http://www.646industries.com/beyond_...moving_to.html

 

And here I was thinking China was smart enough to take steps to not be overdependent on oil like the rest of the civilized world.

 

So they're saying that burning more oil, taking up more room, and making it difficult to travel efficiently on purpuse is the key to economic success? I'd like to meet the deep thinker that came up with that brilliant plan.

 

Probably the Asian version of the imbeciles on the Orlando city council who have intentionally created more congestion on many roads with things like brick paving, overly wide medians and roundabouts. They try to pass this stupidity off by labeling them "traffic-calming devices," but they're really traffic-clogging devices.

 

But at the same time they are increasing taxes on big cars, and decresing it on small (under 1.5 liter) cars. Honestly, it's a rather disconnected country in terms of government. There isn't a lot of cohesion between many of their policymakers. You have the hard-line 5-year plan communists, and you have the arguably more realistic free-market types that just want a managed free market economy of sorts. They run the whole gamut there, even under the guise of being one government.

 

A little off topic but here's what I've seen happen in Boulder though I haven't heard it discussed quite like my take.

Boulder has done an excellent job of creating spacious bike lanes throughout the city. What they have usually done though is take a 2 lane road with parking, and removed the parking to make the bike lane. Of course the bike lanes are usually empty so you have wide roads for cars and the drivers don't feel the narrowness as when cars were parked on both sides. Drivers feel much more comfortable driving faster than the 25mph speed limit on these wide roads and so the speed increases. Then people that live on those streets are upset that people now race comfortably 10-15mph over the speed limit and ask for the traffic circles and speed bumps.

Bike lanes have made it safer for drivers to speed and the subsequent impediments are to fix that unintended consequence.

 

Ever notice how some countries seem to see things clearly and take a long term, well calculated path while others just wander around like a bunch of lemmings? In the US our auto manufacturers seem to want to continue to ride the "bigger is better" mentality until it (or they) strangle from it. In China, well, reference the post...

In Japan, however, Toyota and Honda just plug away year after year, turning out more reliable, more fuel efficient vehicles (I know, except for maybe the early Insight battery packs, HS ). They plan for the long term. They know that $3, $4, $10 a gallon gas is just a matter of time. So Toyota converts the Camry to hybrid and plans for more vehicles - the entire fleet eventually. And when fuel cells are ready, you can bet they will do the same thing. And the thing is, they turn a profit year after year providing safe, reliable, efficient transportation while GM and Ford go from feast to famine, churning out monsters because "that's what the American public wants". And Toyota and Honda continue to eat their lunch in a year over year comparison because they are really turning out what Americans want (though I do think they caved when they started turning out SUVs for the American market). And when the next gas "crisis" hits, who is going to be positioned to deal with it? Certainly not our "favorite sons". I'm sorry this sounds unpatriotic - I love this country. But I hate some of the stupid things we allow ourselves to do.

Okay, I feel better now...