Shanghai's cycling culture hangs in the balance; but it's not just because of the motor car.

I was fortunate enough to visit Shanghai recently.  It's an energetic and complex mega-city (24 million residents, and counting) where modernity is meeting the old ways of Chinese living.  I'd heard before how this former city of bicycles had become enthralled to the motor car, but I hadn't expected the very fabric of the city itself to contribute to the decline in cycle culture.



Cycling rates have decreased in Shanghai in recent years, and the same problem can be seen all over China.  In decades past China was called the "Kingdom of the Bicycle" where massive populations were moved around by massive amounts of bikes.  As recently as 1998 some 63% of all journeys in the city of Jinan were made by bicycle.  By 2011 that figure had fallen to 10%.  In Shanghai, cycling rates fell by 60% over the same period.  These sobering figures are from the World Bank, who are rarely breathless about this sort of thing.

I flew to Shanghai on a Chinese airline.  Every commercial on the entertainment package - without exception - was for a private car.  It was the same in the in-flight magazine.  Cars that gave you feelings of freedom, cars that helped you keep your family safe, cars that would help you reconnect with your kids after a busy day at the office, cars that would help you find (and keep) a girlfriend.  I was fully prepared to witness the reality of the idea that a rise in private car ownership had directly contributed to the decline in cycling rates.  What I discovered was something rather different.

On the streets of Shanghai, signs of an impressive-by-UK-standards cycling rate can still be seen everywhere.  There are manned bike parks outside shopping malls, deliveries of goods of every shape and size being made by bicycle, labourers plying for work from one construction site to another using bikes to get around.  Kids being collected by grandparents from school by bike, and even bottles of gas being delivered on bicycles through the tightly packed streets of the Shikumen Longtang residences; a style of back-to-back row housing famous in Shanghai.  But all the cyclists I saw were just a small percent compared to what you would have found just a few years ago.  Where have all the cyclists gone?

To say that Chinese cities are changing at breakneck speed almost seems like an understatement.  We all know the stories of entire towns and districts being built in the time it would take for us to raise a few houses.  Change builds quickly, and sweeps aside everything in its path.  Just twenty years ago Shanghai did not have a single metro line. Now it has 14, carrying roughly 6 million passengers per day.  Passengers are whisked to the airport at 430kph on a new maglev train.  The 632 metre high Shanghai Tower is the tallest building in Asia - the second tallest in the world - and popped up in just 5 years. The city has an active car ownership restraint programme, auctioning number plates to deliberately inflate their value, but this did not stop the number of cars owned in the city increasing by an additional million in just 5 years between 2005 and 2010 to 3.1 million.  In 2010, when asked if she'd like to go on a romantic bike ride, dating show contestant Ma Nuo caused an uproar responding, "I'd rather cry in the back of a BMW than smile on a bicycle." (Source: The Atlantic)

All across Shanghai densely packed Longtang housing is being cleared to make way for wider roads, shopping malls and high rise housing, each new tower fenced off from the next. In these new developments the subjective experience for pedestrians and cyclists is greatly diminished with bike lanes ripped out and new roads built without any sidewalk.  To be clear, much of the old housing is cramped, dark and with only very basic sanitation, with many people living together in conditions we would consider positively Victorian.  But on the streets there is a palpable sense of social cohesion with people sitting out the front of their homes, talking to neighbours, trading with passers by and only ever a short bicycle ride away from commerce, education or parks.  Door-to-door traders ply their wares, children play in the lanes, old people gather around tables for tea or to enjoy card games, and all in a predominantly car free environment.

Traditional Longtang housing is being demolished all across the city to be replaced with high rise residential towers.

As these neighbourhoods are cleared and replaced with high rise residential towers (at great profit for the people to who the formerly unowned land has been assigned), the residents who move in to the new units gain light, air, electricity and private bathrooms.  But down on the ground they loose a richly patterned street life that was sustained by the shape of the city and the types of building in it, which in turn supported high cycling rates.   Instead, people travel the greater distances presented by their new homes on the burgeoning transit system, or in cars.  As more people travel in this way, so there are fewer cyclists, and space for cyclists, and so conditions deteriorate further and the decline continues.

New developments create poor amenity for both walkers and cyclists.

The idea that massive increases in private car ownership rates have led to the demise of the bicycle in China is too readily accepted by Western commentators.  We know, from the experience of successful cycling countries such as the Netherlands where there are both high cycle and car ownership rates, that the two can live together simultaneously.  The decline of the bicycle in China is more complex than at first it seems.  The World Bank says; "Conditions for both pedestrians and cyclists have been deteriorating across Chinese cities in the last few years. This is due to a combination of factors, including the lack of policies prioritising these users, cities sacrificing space for non-motorised traffic to be used for motorised traffic, the spatial growth of cities resulting in longer trips, and specific difficulties related to the big arterial roads of a typical Chinese city."

"You don't know what you've got till it's gone"

In short, as Shanghai strives to update itself, it risks destroying its cycling culture.  Not because some people can now afford a car or two, but because the form of the city itself is changing the way people travel.  In high towers residents are no longer able to make short trips to neighbours by bike, whilst below ground the metro waits to speed Shanghainese further and faster.  At street level the conditions for cycling are no longer pleasant or efficient enough to convince as many people to ride a bike as once was the case.  It's a cliche to quote Joni Mitchell singing "You don't know what you've got till it's gone", but for all its modern style and progress, in the case of Shanghai I'm inclined to agree.

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Why cyclists must lead if "superhighways" are to be a success

Today sees the launch of the first two of twelve proposed Barclay's Cycle Superhighways; bright blue radial cycling routes running from the suburbs to inner London.  Perhaps because the word 'superhighway' counjures up images of smooth, broad fully segregrated Dutch-style infrastructure, and perhaps because in places they are more than a little bit crap in their design, their development has been monitored closely and received some fairly negative press from the bike blogging fraternity here, here, here and even by myself, here.

It's clear that the cycle superhighways are a branding exercise designed to demonstrate to new and potential cyclists the possibility of cycling.  Outside of the cycling fraternity most people would have no idea that the cycle lanes are less than perfect by international design standards; they'll see Boris riding on the tea time news tonight, and the well-branded direct route running past their local tube station, and consider cycling.  For that, and for all the peripheral works surround the cycle superhighways (free cycle training, increased cycle parking, better signage etc) the bright blue lanes should be seen as a good thing.

As to Boris Johnson's original claim that "No longer will pedal power have to dance and dodge around petrol power... ...the bicycle will dominate and that will be clear to all others using them"[1], the cycle superhighways are not going to provide that kind of utopian reality.  There is off peak parking on top of the blue lanes all along the routes, and there has been no re-allocation of road space along the routes meaning that the width of the 'car' lane has been effectively narrowed by 1.5 metres; we should not therefore be surprised to find cars on the blue paint.  Does the bright blue paint help to alert drivers to the presence of cyclists?  Maybe.  But we should all be acutely aware that the non-segregated lanes do nothing to provide protection to cyclists from other road users.  Indeed, if a car wants to swing into the cycle lane there is nothing to stop them from doing so, as Secretary for State Vince Cable so ably demonstrated last week, and as these photos so keenly show:

Photo from the Bike Show, with thanks

It's worth bearing in mind, of course, that the two routes being opened today are pilots, with lessons learnt from these taken on to the construction of the future routes.  It's essential that as many cyclists as possible engage with Transport for London as to what their ideas would be to improve the scheme.  It's clear that like these two routes, the future superhighways will not be segregrated 'Dutch-style' lanes.  Colin Buchanan over at his transport planning blog, argues that this is a classic 'chicken and egg' situation; "Unfortunately pursuing really radical measures for cyclists will come up against the inertia of a whole range of political, institutional, and professional pressures. The question is, how do we create mass cycling in a society that has for so long accommodated mass motoring?  The answer is you start where you can!"  The future of cycling policy in London rests in the hands of cyclists; it is up to us to write the letters, lobby our MPs, point out the design faults and praise the good stuff, effectively 'crowd sourcing' the shape of things to come.  It's clear that the fancy branding and headline nature of the cycle superhighways will inevitably lead to an increase in cycling rates - a good thing of course - but if we wanted to really increase the rate we should be looking at increasing, not cutting the level of traffic police and safety cameras, retaining the western congestion charge zone, a 20MPH blanket speed limit for all of London, and of course removing HGVs (the biggest threat to cyclists) from our roads during the morning rush hour.  As the LCC correctly points out, at present the success of the cycle superhighways currently rests with other road users and how they choose to treat them.  A splash of blue paint goes a long way for raising awareness of cyclists, but some strong quality legislation, and effective enforcement of existing rules would go even further, as Green London Assembly member Jenny Jones explains:

Bringing about a cycling revolution in London is no easy task, and of course it's great that something at least is being done.  But if we all want to see a cyclised city in the future it's up to us all to get involved and shape the direction of things to come - whether that be Dutch-style cycle lanes or bright blue paint - what would you do to improve the lot of the London cyclist?

Cycle parking victory for ibikelondon!

Remember this post about the shocking lack of bike parking provided at the stations on the brand new billion pound East London Line? 

You'll recall that the new muliti-million pound Dalston Junction bus and train station had opened without a single cycle parking stand, despite Transport for London's own standards stating that "Secure cycle parking should be incorporated in new developments that have the potential to attract new cyclists."  New Zone 1 station Shoreditch High Street had been provided with just 6 stands, despite the rules that at Zone 1 stations there should be one bicycle parking space for every 200 people entering the station...

So far, so depressing... I was less curious to know if TfL and it's team of architects had totally over-looked their own guidelines (or chosen to ignore them), but more importantly to try to find out what could be done to improve the situation.  We are, after all, going to need considerably more than a handful of cycle stands at new stations if we are ever going to really have a 'velorution'.  Following my initial blog post, questions were asked, letters were written.  The Mayor himself, Boris Johnson, was questioned at the Assembly.  I've just had the following news, which I am thrilled to share:



Parking space for 180 bicycles will be installed at the following four new stations: 

Shoreditch High Street will have a further 19 stands installed to compliment it's existing 6, providing space for 50 bicycles.

Dalston Junction will have 15 stands installed on rail land, and be complimented by a further 25 stands provided by the London Borough of Hackney at Dalston Square, providing cycle parking for 80 bicycles.

Haggerston will provide space for 38 bicycles, whereas previously there were just 5 cycle stands.  Again, Hackney will also install further complimentary stands nearby in addition.

When complete, Hoxton station will have space for 62 bicycles.

There are ongoing land use issues at the older re-styled stations at Wapping, Whitechapel and Rotherhithe.  Cycle parking at Shadwell is now under review.  The 6 stands at Surrey Quays are all that the space constraints at the station allow, according to TfL so there will be no change there.

Whilst we're not talking about Dutch standards here (remember Assen, the town with a population of 65,000 and 2,300 bike parking spaces at it's local station?!), it's certainly an improvement on the previous situation. 

What concerns me most is that it took complaints by cyclists just to get the facilities we need provided in the first place.  The Mayor and Transport for London (of which he is Chair) have policies telling them all they need to know when it comes to designing in the needs of cyclists.  Indeed, the Mayor's own 10 point plan for creating a 'cycling revolution' in the capital states that there must be "an increase in secure cycle-parking on streets, in workplaces, and at stations and schools".  So what is happening here?  Do actions really speak louder than words?  As work begins across the city on London's new Crossrail stations, London's cyclists are watching...

Love London's Cyclists

Sometimes, as we look at the causes of some of the problems facing cyclists, we forget to remember what a joy it can be.  As the weather warms up and more and more cyclists take to London's streets I've been out and about with my camera trying to capture them all.  We're so lucky here in London in that we get to cycle around places like Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, the South Bank, Green Park, Trafalgar Square and, erm, Hackney, all of which feature in the video.  I hope this video celebrates cycling and furthermore shows non-cyclists how London can't do without us and better still why they should consider joining us.  Let me know what you think.

Mark

WANTED: Twenty seven thousand bike parking spaces

Much was made of the revelation last week that the new ‘Shard of Glass’ skyscraper at London Bridge will provide just 250 cycle parking spaces for it’s 6,500 inhabitants. What will ultimately become the tallest building in Britain falls short when it comes to cycle-friendly credentials. Sadly, in our car-centric capital city, it’s not alone.

The City of London planning officer will admit in a meeting today that there is existing unmet demand for some TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND cycle parking spaces within the City. That is not projected demand; not figures dreamt up to predict what demand for cycle parking might one day be; but demand as it stands NOW.

To me this says two things loud and clear:

One: There are an awful lot of cyclists on Inner London’s roads now and clearly a lot of people are cycling into the City to work. This is a good thing.

Two: The City (and, to be fair, Westminster Council too) are totally unprepared for the volume of cyclists apparent on our roads, and have been caught napping. This is a sad thing.

The planning paper notes that a number of major City businesses (particularly in the financial quarter) report that more than 10% of their workforce are already cycling to work, and the City sees no reason why this would not be the case with the majority of businesses. If the City has a workforce of some 374,000 people, 10% equals some 37,000 pedal-powered office workers.

At present, there are just 834 on-street cycle parking racks in the City, providing parking for 1,668 cycles, and approximately 100 cycle parking spaces in the City’s off-street public car parks.

The Bicycle PlantLock beautifies the traditional bike stand and adds a touch of greenery to the urban landscape (this one seen near Bobbin Bicycles in Islington. Available to purchase here.)

Having acknowledged that they have been caught unawares by the volume of cyclists present, and must do more to provide for them, the planning agenda goes on to be more encouraging:

“A 10% modal share is very significantly below the existing cycling modal share of some English cities (such as Cambridge with 25% cycle journeys to work) and of some overseas cities in countries such as the Netherlands that are not greatly dissimilar to England culturally or geographically (such as a 38% cycling modal share in Amsterdam). It would therefore seem appropriate to treat a 10% modal share as the absolute minimum that the City should be aiming to provide for.”

(Someone should tell Mayor of London Boris Johnson about this and ask him to revise his rather wet aims for just 5% modal share by bike by 2026 – wakey wakey Mr Mayor!)

Cycle parking is more serious an issue than at first it seems: being able to secure your bike once you’ve reached your destination is a serious consideration for most cyclists, and with cycle theft at record levels in London, cycle security could in fact be a stronger deterrent to would-be cyclists than even the road environment and perceived safety in traffic, as London Cycling Campaign communications office Mike Cavenett explains:

"Bike theft is cited as the most common reason for people giving up cycling. In 2008 there were over 17,000 bikes reported stolen in London. It must be tackled more seriously by the police. The costs to Londoners and to the city are phenomenal."

Over-subscribed bicycle parking in the Borough of Hackney.

The City of London, just like the City of Westminster, proclaims to love uncluttered streets. As a consequence they don’t love street parking for bicycles. They’ve never been fans of Sheffield stands or worse still; bikes parked at random locked to any convenient railing. Indeed, it took a House of Lords decision to stop Westminster from chomping through locks and throwing away the bikes without telling the owner in a fit of ‘clean street’-loving, ‘railing-liberating’ bicycle removal. Strangely, they have a less than vigorous approach when it comes to revenue-spinning automobile parking and the various signage, parking metres and street clutter that come with it...

And so it is no surprise that the key strategy being proposed in today’s planning meeting to deal with the City of London’s famine of cycle parking is to provide off-street secure bicycle parking bays in council-run car parks. Indeed, they have already allocated £25,000 towards providing off-street cycle parking this year.

This is great; secure cycle parking is a fantastic thing, especially as cycle theft is such a blight on London. But it is no ‘cure all’ and cannot be the only strategy adopted.

Off-street cycle parking isn’t always immediately obvious to the passing cyclist (and signage is usually pretty poor), and it’s not of any use to visiting cyclists calling into buildings for brief meetings or just passing through.

In order for cycle provision to truly succeed there needs to be a tapestry of cycle parking available:

Large, secure off-street cycle parking, in a well-signed, well-lit and convenient place (there’s no point putting push bike parking on the top deck of a multi-story car park for instance!)

Clusters of Sheffield stands making up mini bicycle hubs – such as the 150 or so stands in groups of 20 around the perimeters of Berkeley Square in Westminster.

Smaller groups of stands at the end of most roads, or in every public space.

And individual cycle parking facilities along streets and outside individual business premesis, such as the innovative and easy to install Cyclehoop. Products like this can help give a formality to the perceived blight of ad-hoc bicycle parking as well as help to improve bike security. Furthermore it's designed and based here in London; supporting a newly-established business like Cyclehoop is the sort of thing that local Councils ought to be doing!

The Cyclehoop is fixed to existing street furniture such as lamp posts and sign posts. (http://www.cyclehoop.com/)

Two last points about cycle parking; having somewhere to store your bicycle is a matter of convenience (and as we’ve discussed here before being able to access your bicycle conveniently is a key to encouraging cycling) but it will never stop determined thieves. Consequently, cycle theft MUST be taken seriously by the Police. Indeed, the City of London has its' own exclusive Police force: we need to ensure that they are fully au fait with just how important reducing cycle theft is and they must be seen to be proactive in dealing with the issue. (I’d encourage them to start at Brick Lane market...)

And we need to get over this idea of a bicycle locked on the street being an aesthetic inconvenience – it’s just the product of lots of people using a smart means of transport. Of course if I left a ten by eight foot box of my stuff in the street that WOULD be selfish, but somehow bikes chained to railings are not okay whilst private cars parked in our gridlocked street are...?

You go figure it out, I’m off to oil my U-lock.

City of London Council: good on you, but you've got some catching up to do!

February commuters, London...

It was morning rush hour, the junction of Cambridge Heath and Bethnal Green Road, on a cold February morning.  Experimenting with my new camera and how it operates in that dusty grey early light we get at this time of year, and checking out the early morning commuter street style.  I love the guy with the smoke on the go at the traffic lights striking a pose, and the dude with the purple Doc Martens with purple hat, and of course the girl in the red coat who looks like she's straight out of Copenhagen Cycle Chic. 

All my cycling photos can be found here on Flickr and are covered by a creative commons license.

Is this the worse cycle lane in London?

You'll often hear the argument from other cyclists that we should "be grateful for any cycling provision we get" or that cycle lanes that have been campaigned for have been "hard earnt", as if this means we should be silent in accepting them if they are second rate, or worse still dangerous.


Unfortunately, there are many cycle lanes here in central London that are so second rate as to actually pose a danger to cyclists.  Defensive cycling means cycling at least three feet out from the curb, away from the gutters full of dirt and debris, away from the doors of parked cars that might open at any moment, away from the potholes and drains and, most importantly, out in the lane where you can maintain a straight predictable course (instead of weaving back and forth between gaps in parked cars) and where you can be seen by other road users. 

If you kept within the boundaries of this cycle lane that I snapped on Lambeth Bridge near the Palace of Westminster you would be riding less than half a metre from the curb side - the useable part of the lane (ie the bit not covered in half an inch of raised slippery-when-wet paint or in the gutters) is so narrow you'd be so busy focussing on trying to balance and maintain a straight line within the confines of the lane that you probably wouldn't even notice the lorry ahead of you turning left without signalling....


Cycles lanes like this decrease the road space available to cyclists and, because drivers seem to perceive the painted boundaries of such lanes as some kind of 'magic barrier' are likely to get much closer when passing - this was demonstrated by a report by the Warrington Cycle Campaign  which showed the differences between overtaking space given by vehicles to cyclists on the road and cyclists in designated cycle lanes:

And when cyclists are wise enough to protect themselves by choosing not to use poorly designed cycling infrastructure, they are accused by motor users of not 'getting out of the way' and using the lanes provided (at great expense no doubt!).  This only increases the animosity sometimes evident between cyclists and other road users.

Regardless of the statistical truth, cycling is perceived as being a dangerous activity in central London.  Whilst more and more people are realising how easy, safe and convenient cycling really is, and the numbers of cyclists are growing year on year, we are a long way off from 'convincing the masses' to get astride their bikes.  If there is to be a shift-change towards achieving mass cycling rates (such as in the Netherlands or Denmark where certain urban areas are currently working towards achieving 50% of modal share of journeys by bicycle) there needs to be perceptibly safe and well-designed cycling infrastructure provided.  Our present Mayor is exceptional at marketing cycling in a positive and encouraging way that makes cycling out to be everyday and ordinary, which is great, but the marketing spin has to be backed up with well maintained, well designed and good quality infrastructure to boot.  If you don't think your Mum or Gran would feel safe using the facility provided (such as the Lambeth Bridge cycle lane) then it isn't good enough, and if you don't think your Mum and your Gran would feel safe cycling in the traffic there either then something else, a third way in terms of cycling facilities, needs to be found for London...

Post Script:

Of course not all cycling facilities in London are as bad as the one above, and some do provide safe passage or well constructed contra-flows against one way systems or across dangerous gyratorys.  But they need to be maintained and patrolled (like double yellow lines) to ensure that people don't abuse the facilities and park in them.  Over at MyBikeLane you can view and report incidents of vehicles encroaching on our space.  I am sure that most London cyclists will be more than familiar with having to cycle round one of their worst perpetrators:

 

Moments of movement

I've been out and about with my new camera, tyring out all the settings and seeing what it can do.  Here are some of the results I thought I'd share with you:














You can find my Flickr photo stream of all my cycling photos, which have a creative commons license meaning you can do anything you like with them so long as it's not for profit (and give me a mention), here.