The Resurgence of Bicycles in Urban China
Like rail and air transport, transportation within city also has its own peculiarities in China and has advanced greatly in recent years. With a large population, China was once considered as the largest producer and consumer of bicycles in 1980s, before automobiles came into the view. With the emergence of bike sharing, China’s bicycle manufacturing industry has achieved not only a substantial increase in output and profits, but also industrial upgrading. China is also the world’s leading producer of electric bicycles. According to the data of the China Bicycle Association, a government-chartered industry group, in 2004 China’s manufacturers sold 7.5 million electric bicycles nationwide, which was almost twice of the sales in 2003; domestic sales reached 10 million in 2005, and 16 to 18 million in 2006. By 2007, electric bicycles were thought to make up 10 to 20 percent of all two-wheeled vehicles in many major cities. Besides electronic bicycles, the urban rail transit and more innovative means of getting around within city all present a new look of city transportation in China.
The Expansion of Urban Rail Transit
Urban rail transit in China encompasses a broad range of urban and suburban electric passenger rail mass transit systems including subway, light rail, tram and maglev. By January, 2019, there were in total 38 urban subways in China. Of the top 15 longest metro systems in the world, 8 of them are in China, also possessing half of the top ten busiest metro systems in the world. The first subway system in mainland China was the Beijing subway, which was built in 1965, completed in 1969 and put into trial operation in January 1971.
The Shanghai metro, which opened in 1993, is the largest and longest subway system in the world. It is the largest component of the Shanghai metropolitan rail transit network, together with the Shanghai maglev train, the Zhangjiang Tram, the Songjiang Tram and the China Railway-operated commuter rail services to Jinshan. The metro system is also integrated with other forms of public transport in Shanghai. The Shanghai Maglev Train or Shanghai Transrapid is a magnetic levitation train (maglev) line that operates in Shanghai. The line is the third commercially operated magnetic levitation line in history, after the British Birmingham Maglev and the German M-Bahn, and the first commercial high-speed maglev. It is the fastest commercial high-speed electric train in the world.The train line connects Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Longyang Road Station (in the outskirts of central Pudong), where passengers can interchange to the Shanghai Metro to continue their trip to the city center.
New Travel Trends: Bike - Sharing and Online Car - Hailing
Just like Uber and Airbnb, bike sharing, as a form of sharing economy, finds its voice in China. Bike sharing means that enterprises provide bike sharing services on campus, subway stations, bus stations, residential areas, business districts and public service areas. It is a time-sharing rental model. Sharing bicycle is a new kind of environmental sharing economy and a new type of vehicle rental business, which mainly relies on the carrier—bicycle. This new way of bike rental can make full use of the city in the case of the travel malaise brought about by the rapid economic development. Bike users can just download an app on their smartphones, which allows them to locate and unlock a nearby bike with very low price. When they finish the trip, they can park the bicycle at any public location as long as it does not interfere with the traffic or the pedestrian. The flexibility makes bike sharing stand out compared with traditional bike rentals and other public transit options. With the development of this new forms or bicycle, China again becomes a country of bicycles.
Since the end of 2016, bike sharing has suddenly become popular. In addition to Mobike, ofo and Hellobike, which entered the market earlier, at least 25 new brands entered the market in 2016, including even electric bicycle sharing brands. In the meantime, these companies have already extended their business market to the overseas market.
Similar to bike-sharing, online car-hailing, represented by DiDi, has also largely changed Chinese people’s modes of travelling and even living. It is a Chinese ride- sharing, artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous technology conglomerate, which provides services including taxi hailing, private car hailing, social ride-sharing, bike sharing and food delivery to customers in China via a smartphone application. “DiDi” App has greatly changed the traditional way of taking a taxi, established and cultivated the modern traveling mode of users in the era of mobile Internet. The immediate communication and convenient online payment optimizes a taxi passenger’s experience by saving time, energy and resources. Apart from DiDi, Meituan Dache is a strong competitor.
