China focus: Chinese city gets back on its bike

• Source: Xinhua
• [14:07 May 01 2009]
• Comments

In China's bustling metropolises, rush hours are nightmares for office workers each morning and evening. East China's Hangzhou, known for its charming scenic spot West Lake, is no exception.

Every day, about 460,000 motor vehicles, including 360,000 private cars, are running in an endless stream along downtown streets of Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province. About 50,000 vehicles are poured in to add up urban freight flows each year. Car drivers have doubled the average driving time from residential quarters in the western part of the city to downtown offices, from about 15 minutes two years ago to the present 30 minutes. During rush hours, it will take about 10 minutes to crawl over the 100-meter-long bridge approach to access the city's overpass lanes leading to downtown areas.

Li Meng, a section manager of a foreign-funded company in downtown Hangzhou, could no longer tolerate the jams, and bid adieu to her favorite red roadster early this year, after stinging criticism from her boss for being late.

At 7.30 one morning in January, Li drove her roadster away from her home in the Cuiyuan Residential Quarter in western Hangzhou and joined the stream of cars heading downtown. In half an hour, Li finally hit the Zhonghe Overpass Road that ran from the north to the south of Hangzhou. To her bewilderment, the vehicle flow remained locked solid for 10 minutes. She looked at her watch, and there was only 15 minutes left for her to chair a meeting in the office. Fidgeting about in her car, Li was vexed at not being able to leave her car and run to the office.

Feeling wronged by the stricture of her boss for the late, Li, in her 30s, tried another way of getting to work - a bicycle. She had a shot at it at the beginning, but later found she started to love bicycling.

Months of riding a bicycle, for half an hour amid fresh air across lanes and along the lake, Li found herself refreshed in the office.

"Going ahead at a full gallop on my bicycle while observing so many cars jammed on the Western Ring Road and Stadium Road, I am so excited and very often would simply want to whistle," said Li.