Illustration: Liu Rui

Katie Melua’s song, 9 Million Bicycles, claims “There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing.” It’s a much quoted statistic from the 1980s, but the real number of bikes nowadays nobody knows. There may be 9 million bikes or more, but how many of them are gathering dust under the stairs? 

But we know some figures. Last year there were about 800,000 cars added to the city’s streets. This number has been cut drastically by the new car quota system, wherein new owners have to enter a car “lottery” to get the right to drive their own vehicle. Yet, already 6 million people have a driver’s license here. There is no doubt that everywhere the traffic is thick and dense, and the future of the bike is intimately connected with the car and the bus.

Before I came to China for the first time in 2004, I had images in my mind of thousands of bike riders thronging the city streets. 

On my first hesitant entry into the traffic flow, after buying an old bike for a few dollars, I tasted for the first time a unique experience. Riding a bike in Beijing feels safer than it does even in my small New Zealand hometown, and certainly safer than in London or Brussels.

Bikes are broadly segregated into their own lanes and even in narrow streets where lanes are not practicable and the traffic is mixed it feels safer there, too. One reason is that the overall traffic flow is slower. The difference in speed between motorized vehicles and bikes is much less than it is in fast-moving traffic elsewhere. 

Also helpful is that heavy vehicles are banned during the day time. However professional truck drivers become, they cannot always see the bike rider in their mirrors, and a blind spot does not have to be very large to miss someone in a narrow street. 

If there is a safety factor of concern, it is the speed, silence and immaturity of some E-bike riders. The only time I have been nearly knocked off my bike was when being overtaken by an E-biker who cut back in front.

Some cities have banned E-bikes, despite their advantages in pollution reduction. They have been implicated in just too many serious accidents. Others have thought of giving them a warning sound that indicates their presence. Licensing E-bikers has also been suggested with some prior training, as is mandatory in many countries for motorbike riders. 

The way to deal with this seriously is to use modern risk assessment techniques to examine present traffic flows and the available statistics. The traffic police and institutes should lead this with expertise provided professionally from the State Administration of Work Safety and risk assessment companies that are developing fast. 

It would be useful if representative user organizations were involved in such a process at some stage, too. Such a risk assessment of Beijing’s traffic would be a unique contribution, not just to the city but internationally. 

Personal protection should also be considered, as it is in all well-organized safety systems. A requirement to wear a safety helmet in China would bring joy to manufacturers, but this would not be the first priority. 

More immediately needed are florescent strips for both clothing and bikes to make the bikes and riders more visible in the dark. Lights should be mandatory for E-bikes, as they are for cars. 

And there’s one aspect of Beijing traffic that’s always terrifying to newcomers. Drivers, cyclists, power bikers and even buses casually enter the traffic flow from any direction, all in the belief, it seems that the other road users will just give way. 

This usually happens without too much honking of horns or actual road rage. It took me several years to understand this part of traffic culture here but then it fell into place, when my partner told me, “This is how we have always ridden bikes here in China.” It seems to work, but I wouldn’t try it in fast-moving city traffic elsewhere.

The author is a coal mine safety adviser based in Beijing. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn