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According to the Shanghai Daily News, Wu Jiang, deputy director of Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau said "The bicycle is still a premier transport tool in the city."
He said this at a Sino-British symposium on riverside planning.
Shanghai has a bicycle population of 9 million and rising, but increasing prosperity in China is leading to an ever growing appetite for privately-owned motorcars. If Western cities are designed around the automobile, then so should Chinese cities, goes some official thinking.
In December last year, Shanghai police chiefs mooted plans for banning cyclists in downtown areas and on major arterial roads. Law-breaking cyclists were to also face tougher fines. To date there has bee no ban and Shanghai’s cyclusts continue to flout traffic laws with impunity.
However, plans to create "cycle roads" – see the Shanghai Daily News link below – could be seen not as a positive move but one that would see cyclists forced away from the road network.
