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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (1984)	12/14/2003 12:11:31 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6370

This is such a stupid move!! -- Gridlocked Shanghai to Ban Bicycles As affluence brings more cars, city forbids traditional transport on major routes. By Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press Writer SHANGHAI — Bicycles were kings of the road in Shanghai for decades, transporting young and old, lofty and lowly, through streets and markets. Times have changed, and the automobile now rules supreme. As for bikes, well, they just get in the way, according to local police. Already barred from some major thoroughfares, bicycles will be banned altogether from important streets starting next year, newspapers reported this month. To further discourage riders — especially those with a tendency to bend the rules — police are jacking up fines tenfold for infractions such as running red lights. "Bicycles put great pressure on the city's troubled traffic situation," the English-language Shanghai Daily quoted police official Chen Yuangao as saying. Yet cars, buses and taxis put pressure on the environment, argue bike proponents, who aren't taking the proposed changes sitting down. Vehicle emissions have become a major source of pollution in Shanghai and other large Chinese cities, even while heavily polluting industries have been shuttered. Low-polluting alternatives such as electric bicycles have grown more popular, but the new rules would ban those as well. Banning bicycles could also worsen overcrowding on buses and subways and prompt more people to turn to automobiles, worsening the pollution problem. "Bicycles are an environmentally friendly means of transportation that should not be banned," the paper quoted Zhao Guotong, an official of the Shanghai Economic Commission, as saying. Shanghai should instead "take firm control of the increasing numbers of private cars," Zhao was quoted as saying. latimes.com