- Gordon Dumoulin
Beijing's first elevated highway for bicycles
Beijing's first elevated highway exclusively for bicycles has opened last Friday, connecting Huilongguan, one of the capital's most populous residential zones in Changping District, with Shangdi, a rapidly developing high-tech industrial zone in neighboring Haidian District.
The 6.5-kilometer-long track has over 5,000 accompanying parking spaces to leave your bike conveniently at night and hop up again the morning. The six-meter-wide express way will accommodate two-way, four-lane bicycle traffic and is designed without any traffic lights whatsoever.
To prevent it from becoming too congested, the road will only have a total of eight exits and entrances at key areas. Pedestrians, electric bikes, and other vehicles will not be allowed to access the express way. About 370,000 residents live in Huilongguan but work in Haidian.
The new bicycle highway can cut the commute time for cyclists from an average of 40 minutes to just 26 minutes.
Beijing aims to build 3,200 kilometers of bike lanes within the city's Third Ring Road by 2020.