By Zheng Xin (
China Daily)
08:29, July 18, 2013
A woman rents a bicycle in the Sanyuanqiao area. Beijing now offers 14,000 bikes for rent and plans to nearly double the number this year to promote eco-friendly transportation. Provided to China Daily
Beijing will nearly double its number of bicycles for rent, to 25,000 this year, with plans to add more, in an attempt to cut air pollution and traffic congestion in the city.
With private automobile ownership estimated to exceed 6 million by the end of 2016, Beijing is encouraging a higher use of two-wheeled transport to weaken, if not reverse, the dominance of automobiles in the capital, one cause of severe air pollution in many first-tier cities.
The public rental bicycle project that started in 2011 in Beijing has proved popular, with initial success seeing many of the public taking to bicycles during its two-year trial period.
"The rental service as a public welfare project has to some extent encouraged the use of public transportation in the city so far," said Zhu Haiyan, an employee of the Beijing Commission of Transport.
Like many other city dwellers, Lu Xingchi used to spend two hours daily commuting between his home and office.
What troubled him most was not the crowds and congestion he encountered each day on the subway, but the extra 2 kilometers between his home and the nearest subway station.
"It takes as much time to walk the 2 km as the 13 km riding the underground," said the 27-year-old software engineer.
The time Lu spends commuting has been cut by almost by a third with the greater allocation of public bicycles throughout the city, with one bicycle rental station in the community where Lu lives, in Chaoyang district. "Now I ride a rental bike from my community to Liangmaqiao subway station, where I return the bike and take the subway," Lu said. "You can return the bike right away and don't need to worry it will be stolen."
【1】 【2】 【3】 We Recommend:
Teenage crash victims were talented studentsWhat did eco-migration bring to rural residentsHard working people under the sweltering sunCute twin sisters popular on the Internet Keep the childlike innocenceMarriage made in fairs by anxiety parentsTop 10 beautiful small cities in ChinaChina's weekly story (2013.6.28-7.5)Rainstorms batter SW China quake-hit regionsEmail|
Print|
Comments（Editor：WangLili、Chen Lidan）
Increases the bookmark
twitterfacebookSina MicroblogdiggGoogleDeliciousbuzzfriendfeedLinkedindiigoredditstumbleuponQzoneQQ MicroblogRelated Reading
Long live the kingdom of bicycles!Chinese lifestyle: changes in transportation (Part two)Slavish imitation not conducive to hold world-famous sporting eventsMissing piece in the new public bicycle service puzzleA long way to "the kingdom of the bicycle"Bicycles to help bring in green new yearBicycling revives as China's middle class embrace itFerrari bamboo bicycle appears in BeijingHot NewsOfficials urged to promote "mass line" campaignChina refutes Philippines' South China Sea accusationChina Red Cross defends itself, asks for fairnessNew visa law offers lifeline to foreigners during emergenciesChina mulls compensation for flight delaysBaidu to buy 91 Wireless for 1.9 bln USD 'After Earth' tops China's film charts Timothy Fok doesn't mind Guo Jingjing moving out
本站仅提供存储服务，所有内容均由用户发布，如发现有害或侵权内容，请
点击举报。
