Sunday was World Car Free Day, striving to remind people of the earth that cars pollute and are actually less necessary than you think (unless you live in Suburbia, USA). More than 150 Chinese cities observed World Car Free Day, according to Xinhua, though it was apparent that some cities observed it much better than others.
In Lanzhou, it looks like people made a concerted effort to not use cars, and look at the results. In Ningbo, there was a bike event sponsored by Giant to promote a low-carbon lifestyle. In fact, several bike and electric bike companies got in the act to promote their products.
In Beijing, the municipal traffic department announced on Sina Weibo on Sunday at 8:21 am that the traffic network was gravely congested, and that the average speed of cars was 22.7 kilometers per hour. Furthermore, everything within Fourth Ring Road was fucked (my word), while the roads between Fourth and Fifth Ring were merely mildly fucked.
Here:
Lovely, isn’t it? Who wants to buy a car? yay!
Some more pictures from ground level, via Xinhua:
(H/T Alicia)
I have a wish. It is for World Car Free Day to become real in China. Because of “Chinese characteristics”, this “China Car Free Day” will mean something else: that every single person is entitled to a car. For free.
The car will be according to the person’s wishes, and so it will be black. And shiny. And of a model number that everyone can live with – foreigners will have lesser models.
To realize this dream, hundreds of millions of cars will hit the streets. And so with that many cars and that much congestion, the concept of a “car” will change in China to have the “Chinese characteristics”, much like how “capitalism” and “socialism” have brand new meanings.
And so cars won’t be used for transportation anymore. They’ll just be for sitting in and maintaining one’s status.
At last, China will be happy. And that is my wish.
I drove around on Sunday, it wasn’t nearly as bad as that image claims. CBD, sure, but if you’re driving around the CBD during peak anything, you’re an idiot to begin with.
People pay for that privilege.