I am in China for the first time (in cities rather than the rural areas) and have been able to see for myself the extraordinarily rapid motorisation and demise of the bicycle in the 'Bicycle Kingdom'. Though a huge flourishing of electric bicycles and freight bicycles. It is one thing to read about it, another to witness it. The age when if you are a 'triple without' you are a man without his own house, car, or nest egg. This does not go down well on one of their TV programmes 'If you are the one' which is a way that single young men and women can evaluate each other. The oft quoted story goes that in one episode a 'triple without' offers a woman a ride on his bicycle, but she brushed it off, saying 'I'd rather cry in a BMW than smile on a bicycle". This may be one of those stories that has got distorted but it gives you the idea that the bicycle is not seen as something to aspire to.
I was given the opportunity to give a seminar about my paper on social influence and bicycling at Tongji University in Shanghai (free link below until Nov 29th) hosted by Professor Haixiao Pan who is one of the few proponents of green transport here. I really wondered whether this was a good idea - what did I know about the social and cultural context of China without speaking Mandarin and what relevance was my paper?
However, the discussion post my short presentation to staff, Phd students and Msc Students at the Department of Land use/transport Study lasted 2 hours. For me, it was probably the most interesting and exhausting 2 hours I've spent for a very long time. To my shame their English was very good. They raised so many interesting questions. In our individualistic western societies we do not admit to being socially influenced yet we are - how does that play out in a society like China? The idea of qualitative methodologies appeared to be of particular interest but they wanted to understand the issues around whether the interviewee is telling the interviewer what they want to hear which may be particularly difficult to overcome here.
In Shanghai at least, cycling is seen as low income, not something to aspire to, but you aspire to owning and driving a car yet apparently there is an 'alley cat' culture developing and I've seen quite a few westerners cycling. There is a huge aspiration to wear western labels but most people are cycling in normal clothes and from observation it is equal men and women though they were unable to confirm that this was the case. I tried to explain about 'Men in Lycra' in the UK but this was clearly a rather alien concept. ' Trundling' is more the order of bicycling here.
The audience was very interested in the idea of the importance of image but they were astonished when I told them that Boris Johnson is known to bicycle, along with the Priminister. They did not see this as possible, their equivalent politicians would not be seen on a bicycle. But, as I commented, when I started on the road to promoting walking and cycling 20 years ago in the UK, I was considered crazy and certainly there was no bicycling Priminster or Mayor. What you see here is the possibility of very very rapid change - the infrastructural changes are so momentous - but can the social and cultural change that is needed to aspire to bicycling be easily changed? When discussing the safety issues there was one very important social factor - If you have only one child, would you allow that child to bicycle when you see the road conditions with congested traffic, electric bicycles, electric motorbikes etc. all seemingly using all available space? At least in Shanghai I was told there are no speed limits and I haven't seen any signs. Of course the congestion means that the traffic is slow but as I discovered in a taxi ride, if the road is empty any speed is OK. At the end, Professor Pan asked me - 'Well what would you do in Shanghai to promote cycling?' - I had to say, it will be a challenge! Though he says that in the last 5 years the government has started listening to the arguments for green transport and he was going that evening to Beijing to present to the Mayors of several Chinese cities. So perhaps things will change.
I'm sure I'll get a flurry of responses from people who know more about China that I do which will be interesting. I do not profess to know much, but when you've worked on something for a long time, you start to think you are stating the obvious. This discussion in China has made me realise that it may not necessarily obvious.
Henrietta
Article title: An Exploration of the Importance of Social Influence in the Decision to Start Bicycling in England
Reference: TRA1365
Journal title: Transportation Research Part A
Corresponding author: Dr. Henrietta Sherwin
First author: Dr. Henrietta Sherwin
Final version published online: 10-OCT-2014
Full bibliographic details: Transportation Research Part A (2014), pp. 32-45
DOI information: 10.1016/j.tra.2014.05.001
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From: Cycling and Society Research Group discussion list [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jennifer Bonham [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 18 October 2014 10:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: public lecture
You may (or may not) be interested in the following lecture - timed for the eve of Ride to Work day here in Adelaide.
It's nothing new for many people on this list but it may have a few interesting points
http://blogs.adelaide.edu.au/researchtuesdays/2014/09/09/the-streets-are-alive/
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