ChiCycle members and the Chichester area community, desperately need some positive ideas to cheer us all up. Perhaps the wisdom and vision of the Chinese people might prove a healthy inspiration to us all? This will be a happy contrast to the situation locally.

ChiCycle are disappointed that local provision for walking and cycling is currently either not provided at all or in some locations is actually being downgraded and/or removed. Despite fake green-wash rhetoric from local and national government that promises to act on the climate emergency, in reality provision for sustainable transport is rapidly worsening in West Sussex.

• Cycle lanes are be removed from the A259 with the expectation that cyclists should ride on the Harbour village pavements
• The southern end of Centurion way is destined to be removed to provide cheap/free land for developers to use as a motor vehicle access road
• Cyclists will be forced off the road approaching the mini roundabout at the southern end of Sherbourne Rd onto the pavement. This will leave cyclists turning impossibly tight blind corners directly into the path of pedestrians. A tall brick wall prevents visibility at these sharp corners so frequent accidents will be inevitable. For elderly residents such collisions with bikes could well end independent living and once crippled leave them only a short a future of living in a care home without mobility.
• Huge developments like Tangmere (1,300 new homes) and White House farm (1,600 new homes) are being built without any realistic walking and cycling opportunities for new residents could use to access shops, schools or employment without depending on using a car.

Despite Chinese culture copying many mistakes made by western nations by moving towards car dependent lifestyles at the end of the 20th and start of the 21st century, the Chinese people have now started to wake up and embrace walking and cycling as the future way to travel through their urban environments!

The following image links from The Beijinger show just how much is being invested in super high standard cycleways in Beijing!

 

READ: Beijing to Improve Over 900km of Bike Lanes, Expand Urban Rail

According to its 13th Five-Year Plan, Beijing aims to build 3,200 kilometres of bike lanes within the city’s Third Ring Road by 2020. Meanwhile, city officials unveiled a proposal last year to create a massive city-wide waterfront greenway so large that a person riding a bicycle at 25 kilometres an hour would require 7 hours to complete the entire circuit.

The Chinese walking and cycling vision makes LTN1/20 (the current UK standards for cycling that are universally ignored) look pathetically unambitious.

Walking and cycling routes are segregated to avoid conflict. Beijing authorities don’t just paint a cycle symbols on unsuitable pavements and pretend these are cycle-routes like WSCC, they put in bike routes where nothing forces cyclists to stop or give way to other modes of transport.

The image below is from a video of a brand new Beijing Superhighway. Check out how there are signalled tidal directional lanes to reduce cycle congestion!

The image below is from another video of the Cycle Super Highway

The Chinese aren’t skimping on cycle-racks either! The following images are from yet another video of Beijing cycleways.