Last week, the proposal to add parking spaces around Yude Community was publicly soliciting public opinion. If the proposal is approved, it could add approximately 1,100 car parking spaces and 4,800 motorcycle parking spaces. From this, it can be seen that in the face of the contradiction between the far-from-adequate increase in road capacity and the growing number of vehicles, solutions apart from expanding road capacity are nothing but a redistribution of road space. The "effectiveness" of this approach over the past decade has been that while increasing parking space, it has reduced sidewalks and non-motorized vehicle lanes, and while increasing car lanes, it has narrowed or even "eliminated" bicycle lanes.
In the 1970s and 1980s, bicycles were the preferred mode of short-distance travel for over 70% of residents. With the rapid rise of private cars, bicycle travel has dropped significantly, and now accounts for an estimated less than 20% of total trips. As a result, some mistakenly believe that cycling is a step backward, or think that driving a car is a symbol of status. Under today’s traffic management system that prioritizes motor vehicles, bicycle lanes in many parts of Jiangmen have become virtually non-existent. For example, on narrower streets like Nonglin West Road and Jianghua Road, either no bicycle lanes are marked at all, or existing ones have been entirely turned into parking spaces; on some main roads like the northern section of Jianshe Road, in places where parking spaces are marked along both sides, bicycle lanes are reduced to just 50 centimeters—barely wide enough for a handlebar. In such conditions, cyclists either break traffic rules by competing with pedestrians for space or jostle with cars, weaving precariously through gaps in traffic.
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