Laws about bikes/ebikes riding on sidewalks, China
1. the semi-small street that I live on (Tianping) has bike lanes
2. the larger street 1.5 blocks away (Hengshan) does not In both cases, bike, ebike, and scooter riders seem to love sidewalks. I imagine that case 2 is legal because riding on a busy road along with cars that are going twice as fast is dangerous, but I'm wondering about case 1 in Shanghai, as well as other cities (e.g. Nanning is particularly scary for pedestrians). |
Originally Posted by moondog
(Post 32657477)
1. the semi-small street that I live on (Tianping) has bike lanes
2. the larger street 1.5 blocks away (Hengshan) does not In both cases, bike, ebike, and scooter riders seem to love sidewalks. I imagine that case 2 is legal because riding on a busy road along with cars that are going twice as fast is dangerous, but I'm wondering about case 1 in Shanghai, as well as other cities (e.g. Nanning is particularly scary for pedestrians). |
Thanks for the info travelinmanS
Here are my thoughts: !. never mess with senior citizens 2. since Hengshan Lu was wide sidewalks, but no bike lanes, I don't advocate going after infringers 3. on streets that have both sidewalks and bike lanes, we should take license plate photos of the SF and McD guys...report to their companies, rather than the police |
Originally Posted by moondog
(Post 32657477)
1. the semi-small street that I live on (Tianping) has bike lanes
2. the larger street 1.5 blocks away (Hengshan) does not In both cases, bike, ebike, and scooter riders seem to love sidewalks. I imagine that case 2 is legal because riding on a busy road along with cars that are going twice as fast is dangerous, but I'm wondering about case 1 in Shanghai, as well as other cities (e.g. Nanning is particularly scary for pedestrians). https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...f70c253fb3.png Road sign banning bikes on Hengshan Rd. In general, if you're in the French concession and you encounter a street with no bike lanes, assume that bikes are forbidden. Of course, there is zero enforcement if a police officer is not present. |
"On streets that have both sidewalks and bike lanes, we should take license plate photos of the SF and McD guys...report to their companies, rather than the police."
Oh no. My strong advice is that foreigners in China should keep a low profile and not do anything which might seem aggressive, like whipping out your phone and snapping shots of various transgressions you come across. Besides, how is anyone to know what you plan to do with the photos. (And yes, violating my own rule, I once started taking some video of SF guys tossing packages around like they were footballs, and they were not happy.) |
While up here in Harbin, the e-bike couriers can't ride on the footpath because of all the cars parked on it!
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Sidewalks are always illegal. Decades ago, most Chinese relied on bikes as transportation. None of them were on the sidewalk.
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Originally Posted by seanpodge
(Post 32664727)
While up here in Harbin, the e-bike couriers can't ride on the footpath because of all the cars parked on it!
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Originally Posted by garykung
(Post 32664870)
Sidewalks are always illegal. Decades ago, most Chinese relied on bikes as transportation. None of them were on the sidewalk.
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
(Post 32665238)
Back then, there weren't many cars driving in the streets.
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Originally Posted by garykung
(Post 32666103)
Not really. In major cities, nothing has been ever changed.
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Originally Posted by moondog
(Post 32666141)
Michael Oksenberg, a departed professor of mine, described ~1980 Beijing to our class. Of relevance here, is that he was staying at one of the hotels on Chang'an Jie, and looked out his window at 10p; there were NO cars within sight. I didn't make it to China until 1995, but I bought a bike, and was always comfortable riding it.
Major cities in 1995 were a lot different from 1980. |
Originally Posted by garykung
(Post 32666335)
OMG - 1980? China was only opened for a few years back then. And 10 pm?
Major cities in 1995 were a lot different from 1980. |
As an aside, the rise of the sharing bikes which some loathe and others (including myself) love, has made getting around Shanghai much easier than the pre-Mobike days. If you're going anywhere in the city it is almost certainly faster to take the subway and/or a shared bike than to drive.
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I'm a big fan of the bikes too. Hellobike even lets you use your Alipay account to ride, so it's easy for foreigners who already have that set up. They appear pretty popular with the locals here too, many more people cycling than in previous years, to the point that the local government has been pushed into providing some basic bike paths. Some of the local press seem to have taken a negative attitude to them though, complaining of them clogging up the footpaths (while somehow ignoring all the empty parked cars that have been doing that for years).
I'll be interested to see if the bike companies keep them around when winter comes! In the past, they've withdrawn them around October/November. |
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