http://www.sustainablegains.com/community/?p=223
Changing Direction Posted on January 26, 2011 by Frank China is a new comer to the world of cars. My friend Liu Zhen who is now in her mid-thirties grew up in a Beijing crowded by bicycles. But car ownership in Beijing grew so rapidly that even eight lane highways could not cope. In Beijing last year 800,000 new cars took to the streets. Where did they all go? They joined traffic jams â" in one evening last September Beijing had 140 traffic jams!! ⦠something had to be done. That something was a lottery for car licence plates. Last Wednesday Beijing had its first lottery to reduce new car registrations; note that this is done by lottery and not price. A total of 210,178 applicants made bids and 17,600 were successful. They plan to have only 240,000 new cars this year, about a third of the number registered in 2010. But it is not enough just to limit peopleâs mobility; I think Beijing should have paid more attention to Holland and developed safe bicycle ways that are away from traffic. Beijing is flat enough and it has many wide streets â" why not? Bicycles keep you fit and do not pollute â" they should be the future of urban transport. Let move away from this â¦. ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
