How China turned the wheel : The Tribune India

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How China turned the wheel

A new sight awaits a first-timer to Beijing as soon as the sweeping expressway from the airport peters out into more mundane streets when it hits the city proper.

How China turned the wheel

Tech’s the way: For the yellow beetles operated by Ofo, the number on the bike is typed in the app. A one-time password received on the phone is punched into the bike’s digital lock to open it for use. However, for the Mobike-owned orange cycles, the app has to be aimed at the bar code of the cycle. Photos courtesy: Monia Aneja from Beijing



Sandeep Dikshit

A new sight awaits a first-timer to Beijing as soon as the sweeping expressway from the airport peters out into more mundane streets when it hits the city proper. Beijing’s streets, like any Asian city, are a medley of all sorts of transport. There is noise and clutter. But these are now lit with the effervescence of hundreds of bright-coloured bicycles weaving in and out of traffic.

China was once called the Kingdom of Bicycles for the sheer number of people who pedalled their way to schools, markets, offices and farms. China began abandoning the bicycle soon after its Paramount Leader’s exhortation “Rang yi bu fen ren xian fu qi lai” (Let some people get rich first) transmutated into “To get rich is glorious”. Cars were in and the bicycles were passé, for use by the economically challenged. The winners of new China were to be seen in high-end limousines rather than sweating it out on a bicycle. The kingdom has now reclaimed its title. The market economy is in full bloom as scores of startups have flooded China’s cities with bicycles.

What has made the experiment a success and may ground Chandigarh’s forthcoming tryst with bike-sharing services next month a lottery is the ease of use. In Chandigarh, bicycle companies will set up stands in all sectors and issue smart cards that can be topped up. So this essentially means awareness about the docking stand in your sector plus taking the trouble of getting a smart card issued. The runaway success of the Chinese model has even led to the emergence of copycats in the US for China’s bike companies have short-circuited all these procedures.

For one, there are no docking stands. The bike can be left anywhere. To get started, users download an app on their smartphone. Then the methods vary. For the yellow beetles operated by Ofo, the number on the bike is typed in the app. A one-time password received on the phone is punched into the bike’s digital lock to open it for use. In case of Mobike-owned cycles with their distinctive bright orange tires and sober black seats, the app has to be aimed at the bar code of the cycle. The app, naturally topped up, keeps a record of the cycling time and deducts the charges (Rs 10 for 30 minutes) when a user leaves the bike.

The revolution arrived at just the right time. Post-Beijing Olympics, the pro-bicycle wallahs were feeling cornered. The Olympics had flattened many a cycle lane into wide eight-lane avenues and other cities were straining to take the same path to fix traffic gridlocks. Those on the city mayors’ side argued that this was the right time to bring the curtains down on a symbol of yesteryear China, of backwardness. The axe fell in Shanghai and the cycle was banned from several thoroughfares.

Meanwhile, companies targeting a youthful lifestyle, especially Jeans manufacturers Levis and Lees, began drafting these colourful beetles as props to the main actors. Ferrari and Lamborghini knocked on the door of male company executive on the make, pitching their luxury bikes as cool accessories just like a Prada bag for their women colleagues. The approach was sexist but it worked. 

Beijing’s side streets today resemble any back office area alley of a busy Indian city: cars parked bonnet to dickey on both sides and barely space for another car to squeeze through. At first sight, the cyclist in Beijing appears as endangered as his Indian species in Chandigarh, Delhi or Ludhiana. But the Chinese motorists were themselves cyclists earlier and, therefore, remember their days of getting bullied by motorists or the licencing system permanently inculcates an indulgent eye for their weaker co-road users. This inculcates a confidence in pedalling, knowing well that motorists will give a cyclist first preference whether it is getting caught in the penumbra of changing traffic lights or swerving into their path to avoid a parked vehicle. And so there is the common sight of a cyclist confidently sailing through in a tightly parked alley while a mini-bus meekly follows in her trail of flying hair and spinning wheels. Or perhaps, the latitude to cyclists is a hangover of the Maoist times when China was called the Kingdom of Bicycles.

But Beijing is no place for amateurs on bikes. The comeback of the cycle hasn’t been as resounding as the Marshall Plan-funded construction of post-War Europe when an entire bicycling ecosystem was born with its own traffic lights, barriers to keep out other modes of transport and, of course, bicycling lanes modelled for long and satisfying rides. In Beijing, as in any Third World country city, dodges have to be made and brakes frequently come into play because the bicycle lane is an all-purpose corridor: bottled-water crates awaiting relocation after a three-wheeler has disgorged these; the saidthree-wheeler undergoing checks a little distance away; a car making a U-turn with generous use of the cycle lane.

Political boost

After the revolution in 1949, Mao promoted the bicycle as a symbol of egalitarianism and a simple lifestyle, much like Gandhi sought to do with the charkha. To the bicycle’s fortune, Mao remained in power long enough to instill the feeling of moksha in his countrymen, once they owned “Three rounds and a sound”: bicycle, watch, sewing machine and radio. With Gandhi gone early in India and Nehru fixated on big-ticket industrialisation, the bicycle’s social standing began slipping. Existing and former Marxist camp followers may know that the master Communist theorist Liu Shaoqi (Main work: Three Essays on Party Building) was the man tasked with reviving the bicycle industry in China. A standard gift to arriving ambassadors became a Flying Pigeon bike, of the same make being used by workers, farmers and babus. With such a political past favouring the bicycle, its re-entry might not have been difficult. Imagine if Modi had the power of images of Vallabhbhai Patel, Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Atal Behari Vajpayee (separately) riding bikes? Or if he had been the organiser of Advani’s cycle yatra?

Not an easy comeback

It is not like the return of old times. The lingering affection for cycles would have meant that cycle companies would have made fewer trips to municipal offices, the subsidy to cycle companies for reducing pollution might have been processed faster. But the elite is firmly wedded to automobiles, preferably high, black and windows half-tinted. Pollution during winters in many cities has eliminated the past custom of family outings on bicycles. The bicycle lane itself is not sacrosanct anymore. If cops are not around, a motorist is inclined to honk cyclists off the lane. Class distinctions clearly mark out a cyclist. The road etiquette is certainly nowhere close to European or American standards. The cycle revolution is taking its toll. Some residents don’t like cycles lying in an untidy heap on their doorsteps. Taken aback by the Chinese ingenuity that is conquering other markets, the western media has been picking holes, wondering how long this mania will last. Then there is the inevitable vandalism — slashing tires and seats or twisting the handles. Despite these setbacks, Chinese companies are playing for keeps because there is big money riding on their success. The bike companies have raised more than Rs 8,000 crore from public issues. Ufo plans to dump 1,000 bicycles in Manchester, marking its entry into Europe. As border skirmishes keep Indians and Chinese estranged, there is little chance of Ufo or Mobike making their entry into cities here. Can we hope for an Indian imitation?

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