Monday, April 02, 2007
More on cycling
It's difficult to convey adequately the scale of cycling here. There are probably more bikes than cars on the road, and there are a *lot* of cars.
About 15% of the bike are electric assisted, very few perol/moped/motorbikes.
At busy time s(ie most of the time) a bike is about as fast as a car (same as back home, really).
Theoretically in the centre, you need to aprk your bike in an authorise, supervised bike park and pay 2p for the privilege. In practice people park anywhere.
There are a lot of 3-wheelers with 3ftx4ft carry spaces behind them. They can carry beds, scaffolding, 3 or 4 people, 15ft lengths of steel piping, 6x4 sheet of glass, caged birds...
On ordinary bikes, I've seen 40 boxes of shoes, two bulging sacks of cabbages, all kinds of stuff.
BJers' are very accurate slow, close-formation cyclists and they need to be packed like a pelton of sardines with inefficient brakes (if any).
Overall BJ is OK to cycle in, even for a beginner, as long as you stick with the pack.
There is a Confucian element to the way the locals obey the lights and trafficpolicers, but it's overlaid with a more Taoist "go with the flow" where necessary.
(No Bhuddist overtones unless that's the nature of the innumerable ring roads.)
About 15% of the bike are electric assisted, very few perol/moped/motorbikes.
At busy time s(ie most of the time) a bike is about as fast as a car (same as back home, really).
Theoretically in the centre, you need to aprk your bike in an authorise, supervised bike park and pay 2p for the privilege. In practice people park anywhere.
There are a lot of 3-wheelers with 3ftx4ft carry spaces behind them. They can carry beds, scaffolding, 3 or 4 people, 15ft lengths of steel piping, 6x4 sheet of glass, caged birds...
On ordinary bikes, I've seen 40 boxes of shoes, two bulging sacks of cabbages, all kinds of stuff.
BJers' are very accurate slow, close-formation cyclists and they need to be packed like a pelton of sardines with inefficient brakes (if any).
Overall BJ is OK to cycle in, even for a beginner, as long as you stick with the pack.
There is a Confucian element to the way the locals obey the lights and trafficpolicers, but it's overlaid with a more Taoist "go with the flow" where necessary.
(No Bhuddist overtones unless that's the nature of the innumerable ring roads.)
# posted by David @ 7:13 am 
