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May 30, 2008, 9:50 am
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The new China and its rising middle class are giving up riding bicycles in favor of buying cars and riding in fuel guzzling comfort.

The Chinese government is even supporting this change over to prove just how fast and well their population is doing.

Unfortunately the use of cars means higher road usage, more pollution and a rise in unhealthy habits for people of all ages.

But the worst thing of all is that the Chinese has already said that bicycles no longer have to be registered as transportation. That is saying that only poor people have to ride bicycles and so the government is supporting the use of cars. Roads are being prepared for a mass of new cars and are already being made wider as they look forward to millions more automobile riders taking to their streets.

Soon only bicycles will be seen in poor towns and not at all in the cities, where the pollution is already high.

Just as the West is trying to get people onto bicycles to make their citizens healthy and to cut down on gas usage, the Chinese are doing the opposite.

I wonder what that will bring in the future?

This seems like a bragging attitude basically and that's a shame. They're doing it just because, because they have something to prove to the West. If they were talking about putting revolutionary, run on water cars it would be a different matter.

Unless they have converted to alternative energy sources, the Chinese are more than likely not going to be immune to the rising fuel costs.

Seeing the conditions and income within China, I doubt that there are going to be an overbearing lot of vehicles on the road.

So much for the Kyoto treaty. Really, China is the worst threat to the global environment. Adding more coal plants and nuclear plants than any other nation. More people on the road in cars = more polution. It's sad that they are glorifying the worst parts of industrialization.

Call me whatever you want, but I have always been fearful of China and don't trust them as far as I can throw them. With their population as it stands, don't see how they can make room for roadways when they need everybit of space for homes and whatnot....

I'm not big on learning about different countries, but from what you're saying I'm guessing most people in China used to ride bicycles instead of driving...

If they think that getting cars is going to make everything better, they're wrong. Their economy is going to go down the drain just as though America did when the World Trade Center went down.

They'll see how much harder everything will be.

Also, most Chinese people are very fit, with people driving cars instead of getting their exercise from riding bikes people in China will gain weight.

China's changing to the automobile is part of the reason gas prices have risen in the USA.

Since China holds most of the world's population, their losses in overall health probably won't be noticed for a century or more.

They are right where we are. What can you expect.

I really don't see how the world can keep going in this manner. It doesn't matter who is moving towards more un-earth friendly ways to try to match the US and its grossly negligent ways, it needs to be stopped and the US needs to restrict a bit of that freedom we all abuse. Children crave boundaries and it doesn't seem that anyone is thinking of that fact by letting people overconsume because they can afford to.

I don't know that children crave boundaries, but I don't see China being able to keep this initial burst of petroleum based consumption up for long.

Their cash flow will slow as world economies slow, and the burden of their hugs population will create its own issues. There probably isn't enough oil left to fuel so large a country for as long as it fueled the rest of the world.

As far as the US restricting freedoms that are being abused, who's freedom would that be?