Urban Liveability & The Bicycle
Recently I have been invited to give a series of lectures about Urban Liveability and the bicycle. So far a variant of the lecture has been delivered at QIngdao Technical University, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing and to the online portal umiwi.com (which is similair in format to TED but for a Chinese audience).
It’s quite exciting to be invited to speak at these institutions as it represents an demonstrates that there is an interest in liveability and in the re-birth of bicycle culture here in China.
Here is a short summary of my lecture ;
My presentation is quite visual and I try to use images instead of words to get people thinking about the bicycle again. I start out by talking about how city planning started to dramatically change in the developed world in 1950’s to make way for for the automobile - which we then thought was the answer to personal mobility. Twenty years later we found these same cities were becoming congested - so in response we built more roads, more bridges, more tunnels and continued carving up our city to try and achieve the dream of free flowing movement around the city by automobile.
In the 1990’s China started to pursue a similar dream of creating automobile centered cities. Now it is not uncommon to see severe traffic congestion in busy Chinese cities. With under 15% of China’s population currently owning cars and the other 85% dreaming on owning one so we really think that it is feasible to continue to promote car based cities ?
On top of that when we have a close look at the population predictions for cities of the future it is clear that the personal automobile is not the best solution for urban mobility. We currently have 3.1 Billion people living in cities and by 2030 it is predicted that there will be over 5 Billion - so now is the time to start to seriously consider how we will live and move around these densely populated cities.
Many of the most progressive and liveable cities in the world have have been thinking about more efficient and sustainable urban mobility and liveability for quite some time. There is a well documented move towards restricting automobile use in city centres in favour of public transportation, walking and cycling. Jan Gehl, the Danish architect refers to this movement as ‘reconquering’ cities.
The bicycle is having a renaissance in many of the most progressive cities - it offers zero emissions, efficiency, freedom of movement, health benefits and social interaction. Copenhagen is the world’s leading bicycle city with a mode share of 36% and by 2015 it aims to have it as high as 50%. Copenhagen has an excellent network of bike paths and lanes and its residents are some of the most content in the world. My favourite bicycle city is Bogota in Columbia. Under the visionary leadership of its former Mayor Enrique Penalosa a new transportation system was introduced without emphasis on the automobile. The also has excellent cycling infrastructure and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system to the acclaim of its residents. Regular car free days are held in the city which encourage people to walk and cycle and enjoy the city.
Beijing was once the ultimate bicycle city. In its peak in the 1980’s 80% of its citizens rode bicycles - however this has now dropped to 19% and is falling quickly as the car culture rises as break neck speed. Bicycle culture in Beijing is at the cross roads - if it continues the way it is now it will be extinct before too long.There are now over 4 million cars in Beijing - if you put these cars bumper to bumper, door to door they would fill the entire contents of the second ring road. So many cars in the city is having an adverse effect on the life, health and liveability of its residents. While other parts of the world discarding the car for many urban trips and using bicycles it seems that Beijing is heading in the opposite direction - as far away from its past as possible. The Government is aware of this and to its credit are working on bicycle policy for the city and have invested heavily in Public Transportation. The Government have the target of increasing ridership to 23% by 2015. This is a very ambitious target the environment for cycling is deteriorating on a daily basis.
STC has the following suggestions for Beijing ;
- Take bicycle planning seriously - it shouldn’t be an after thought but an integral part of the urban mobility plans for the city
- Encourage bicycle usage for shorts trips - currently 40% of all car trips in Beijing are under 5km
- Identify and protect bike lanes - the city has a huge network of bike lanes but they are over run by cars. The most important bike routes should be identified and protected to encourage cyclists to use them
- Re-invent the image of the bicycle - In China it is seen as something that only the poor use. Lets re-think the image of the bicycle as a modern, intelligent urban mobility choice.
- Create some car free zones - Beijing’s historic hutongs are prime candidates for becoming pedestrian and bicycle only zones.
- Driver education - One more bike = one less car = better air = better city. Drivers treat cyclists like a nuisance on BJ’s road when they should be encouraging them for improving the liveability of the city
- Encourage recreational cycling - Beijing has world class cycling infrastructure in the mountains that surround the western and northern extremes of the city.
