Changing lanes

According to plans released by the Beijing transport authority, a network of bicycle-only lanes is to be constructed using hutong within the Second Ring Road, as well as in the Central Business District and many new residential areas.

A bicycle rental point near Lama Temple in Beijing. Officials in the capital plan to promote such services and, by 2012, it is expected there will be 1,000 rental stations offering 20,000 bicycles.

Engineers now be devising ways of linking separate sections of the bicycle lanes interrupted by bus links and other roads.

Several cities in the United States, such as New York and Los Angeles, are also building more bicycle networks.

Meanwhile, in London, capital of England, the first two bicycle highways - 1.5 meters wide and painted bright blue - were officially opened on July 19 to mark the launch of the country's Cycle Revolution project.

"We need to learn from those countries that mark bicycle lanes with different colors to underline the rights of riders," said Wu Hongyang, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Transportation Sciences' urban transport research center.

Work on the special routes has already started in some areas, such as near Beijing's Lama Temple. Outside are several guardrails marking a 2-meter-wide bicycle-only lane.

However, parking places for bicycles continue to dwindle, which experts say has increased the risk of theft.

Although most older supermarkets, office buildings and subway and bus stations have areas for storage, the requirement is often forgotten in today's modern constructions, said Zhao.

As a result, cyclists are forced to leave their bicycles on the roadside or nearby strips of land that are unsupervised, making them easy prey for crooks.

More than 2 million bicycles were reported stolen or missing across China in 2007, according to the latest available data from the Ministry of Public Security.

Beijing transport authorities say they plan to build more bicycle storage facilities, which they hope will create better links with subway and bus services.

"If public transport does not take passengers door to door, then they could finish the last kilometer by bike," Wang Yongqing, vice-chairman of the Beijing committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, told media last month.