Riding fire to “traffic jam”? Is the city ready

The bicycle lane also has the wind of economic riding.

The driveway was the first to feel this upsurge.

On social media, riders on Chang’an Street in Beijing began to get together.

On the bicycle lane specially separated by the fence, professional cyclists wear helmets, riding clothes and step on tens of thousands of professional bicycles, keeping pace with men, women and children who ride bicycles of all kinds.

Photo source of cyclists on Chang’an Street: the motorway next door to Little Red Book blogger Yan Xiaocai is full of traffic, and the bicycle lane is not too far away — caught between a large number of bicycles, each cyclist carefully maintains the shortest safe distance, as if he were back to the era when bicycles “dominated” 30 years ago.

This is already the case on the highway.

The bicycle lane, which was not born long in China, has become a “paradise” for cyclists.

In Chengdu, the 100 kilometer long greenway around the city has become a punching point for local cyclists.

Many people have spontaneously initiated challenges and released strategies to promote cycling into the ranks of Chengdu’s “new Triathlon”.

The speed of the market makes the greenway management feel a “sweet anxiety”.

According to a staff member, they have to work overtime to promote the improvement of various facilities, and release the official riding information as soon as possible to catch up with the riders.

The data can also explain the popularity of exclusive lanes.

In 2019, Beijing opened the first bicycle lane for commuting in China.

Recently, the data for the past three years were released: at present, the average daily riding volume is 4000 to 5000 people, and the cumulative carbon reduction is more than 1500 tons.

Beijing bicycle lane, which spans two expressways and is mainly designed as an elevated road source: Beijing daily in a sense, the exclusive lane marks the dividing line between the new and old riders.

Compared with the previous popular camping and Frisbee, cycling is more like a traditional “return” — after decades of competition between motor vehicles and bicycles for lanes, the city re examines the significance of bicycles, builds special lanes, and “invites” bicycles back to the city.

Behind it is the construction wave of “bicycle friendly cities” led by cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

But how much can such a lane, like the current “riding fever”, bring about? 1 the wave of “1 to n” is almost after Beijing, and bicycle lanes have entered the discourse system of urban construction in a large area.

In 2015, with the completion of phase II of Beijing Zhongguancun Software Park, a new wave of enterprises entered the park, and the number of people entering the park reached a peak.

From Huilongguan, a community inhabited by programmers, to the software park, the problem of commuter congestion has intensified.

It is particularly urgent to design a bicycle lane to divert the long-time subway queues and solve the inconvenience caused by the separation of highways.

At that time, the value of bicycles had been rediscovered in many ways.

In that year, ofo and moBay, which introduced bike sharing to the public, were established one after another.

Beijing is the starting point for them to go nationwide.

In many cities represented by Hangzhou, the greenways built in the riverside, lakeside and riverside areas have made leisure riding grow quietly.

Bicycles, once squeezed by motor vehicles and falling rapidly, are quietly ushering in a turning point.

Photo source: is it necessary to build a bicycle lane in the screenshot of little red book? This issue has been repeatedly discussed in Beijing.

Liweibin, then a senior engineer of the Transportation Planning Institute of Beijing urban planning and Design Institute, showed this kind of entanglement in the interview.

According to her introduction, this kind of research often stays at the conceptual level, but does not have the practice of planning and implementation.

In addition, considering the demonstration effect of Beijing as the capital, the discussion on lanes is quite cautious.

At that time, there was no design standard for bicycle lanes in China, and there was no precedent to use bicycle lanes as an alternative to commuting.

Various details also need to be pondered over, for example, whether to build elevated roads or level roads? How to coordinate the relationship with other roads? If the designers in Beijing were hesitant at that time, the city’s attitude towards bicycle lanes is more determined.

Unlike the “bicycle expressway” built in Beijing, more cities choose to carry bicycle lane functions on the basis of greenways.

According to the statistics of hongpengfei and Jiang Yiyi from Beijing Sport University, as early as 2018, more than 2000 kilometers of bicycle lanes and greenways have been built in Zhengzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Suzhou and other cities.

Take Chengdu as an example.

By 2021, 5188 kilometers of greenways will have been built.

According to the previous plan, more than 1000 kilometers of bicycle lanes will be built in the past three years.

Photo source: Zhang Jian, these bicycle lanes are usually more accessible and connected.

The 100 kilometer ring Greenway in Chengdu can basically realize closed-loop cycling, and multiple parks are connected along the way to improve the sense of riding experience, so that more people are surrounded by the social circle of riding.

In the national comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network planning outline issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council in 2021, it is mentioned that the construction of urban pedestrian, bicycle and other slow-moving transportation systems should be strengthened, with special emphasis on “building bicycle lanes according to local conditions”.

2 definition of “exclusive lane” in fact, the discussion on whether to duplicate the exclusive bicycle lane in Beijing has not stopped since it came into the public view.

When asked this question, a number of experts, including liweibin, have said no.

They believe that this is a kind of “luxury” that can not be copied, and it is only an alternative to solving special problems in a specific place.

“Adjusting measures to local conditions” means that we should carefully study and judge, and do not easily set up bicycle lanes until we have to..