Environmental pollution problems have prompted the Chinese government to seek a return to the cycling era.

Cyclists weave between cars on the streets of Beijing. Photo: AFP

Early every morning, when the fog has yet to clear, Sun Jian cycles to work, weaving through the streets of downtown Beijing that are jammed with cars and buses. “There are so many cars in Beijing, it’s like pouring water from a basin into a bowl,” says Sun Jian, 39, a Beijing native and founder of the city’s famous cycling club.

If he’s lucky, Sun only has to endure traffic jams and pollution on his bike ride to work. On an unlucky day, he’ll also be hit by a car driver who suddenly opens his car door, or by an argument with a car owner who parks in a bicycle spot. Sun’s 30-minute commute is emblematic of the battle between cars and bicycles in China’s megacities, the New York Times commented.

As China’s urbanization and people’s lives become more prosperous, many urban residents have moved to the suburbs to avoid the impact of construction sites. This has led to a rapid increase in urban car use, combined with the government’s loosening of management policies, gradually eliminating the decades-old habit of using bicycles to commute to work among Chinese people.

In megacities like Beijing, the battle is even more stark. Buses, cars, and electric bikes are all vying for bike space. According to city government figures, only 12 percent of people now cycle to work, down from 38 percent in 2000.

However, with air pollution and severe traffic congestion, Beijing authorities are concerned that more and more people are abandoning the habit of using bicycles and are looking for ways to change this trend. City traffic management officials hope that by 2020, the proportion of people using bicycles to work can be raised to 18%.

This is part of the "Green Transport" plan that the Beijing government has pledged to promote, with the aim of improving air quality and traffic congestion. Air pollution has become particularly serious in recent years, causing the number of people suffering from lung diseases to increase rapidly.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, bicycles became a part of the country's culture. Bicycles, sewing machines and watches were once the three essential items that every Chinese family needed.

Just over 20 years ago, the streets of Beijing were filled with the sound of bicycle bells. Repair shops were constantly busy. In fact, there were so many bicycles that in 1994, Beijing traffic officials asked the United Nations for advice on how to manage bicycles in the face of a rapidly growing private car population.

Dan Burden, a UN adviser at the time, said that when he was consulted by the Chinese government, he had a completely opposite view. "Bicycles are the ones who are being harmed by the rapid and unplanned increase in the number of cars, and we should not eliminate bicycles because of that," he said. "Because bicycles have much less space than cars."

However, Burden's suggestion was ignored. "We thought that bicycles were the solution to the problem, but that option was not fully accepted by them," the former expert shared.

Since then, China has become the world’s largest auto market, with new car sales growing 9% in 2014 to 11.8 million.

But getting Beijingers to stop using their cars is no easy task. To encourage more people to use bicycles to commute, Beijing’s urban planners have proposed banning parking on side streets less than 6 meters wide, and creating more bike lanes and fences to mark off these dedicated routes.

However, many cyclists believe that the above measures are unlikely to make Beijing's streets more suitable for bicycles in the short term.

"What I can't stand is that there are no dedicated bike lanes here, and the roads are often occupied by cars," said Phuong Vinh Ban, who moved to Beijing in the summer of 2014. During his first month, Phuong tried cycling to work, but was quickly forced to give up. He also said that the measures the government was considering were not convincing.

In a recent report published by Peking University, air pollution, traffic safety and lack of space are the main reasons why urban residents do not want to use bicycles.

Professor Li Wei of the Beijing Urban Planning and Design Research Institute said the lack of parking spaces remains the main cause. He is involved in drafting regulations to improve infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists in Beijing. Currently, the entire city has enough parking spaces for only 2.5 million cars. "Many cars do not park in designated parking spaces, but park right on the side of the road," Li said. "Beijing's traffic policies have always been favorable to cars."

He also said that the phenomenon of car users not strictly following traffic regulations is also one of the challenges that bicycles are facing.

"Private cars in Beijing are the most free and arbitrary," said Professor Li Wei. "Whenever there is a traffic jam, cars encroach on the lanes for non-motorized vehicles. There is no country in the world where cars can go wherever they want."

According to VNE