Beijing Is No Longer a Cyclist’s Paradise

March 27 (Bloomberg) -- A decade ago, Beijing seemed like acyclist’s paradise. True, there were no dedicated bike lanes,but that was because two-wheeled, man-powered vehicles owned theroad. In what seemed like a scene from an environmentalist’s(slightly socialist) fantasy, scores of bikers would waitpatiently for the light to change, then embark en masse fortheir destinations. By contrast, biking around my hometown ofBoston seemed faintly crazy -- an invitation to being sideswipedby one of our famously considerate drivers.

Today all that has been turned on its head. When I went torent a bike upon my arrival in Beijing last week, people lookedat me as though I were mad. As I tooled around the oldneighborhoods near the Forbidden City, I was often the onlynonmotorized thing in sight. There were bike lanes, all right,but they were populated only by motorbikers and the occasionalfellow intrepid Westerner. On the back streets, I saw a fewolder Chinese cyclists, wearing expressions of thorough disgust.Meanwhile, Boston, like lots of other U.S. cities, has become areasonable place to bicycle. I still wouldn’t recommend it tothe faint of heart, but as long as you bike defensively, youfeel like a member of a forward-looking tribe of change agents.