The bicycle in Third word cities
Bicycles are the chief form of persona l transport in China, with over 5 million in Beijing (with a population of 12.4 million in 1995), where 30 per cent of travel was influenced by a pre 1980 prohibition on private car-ownership, a workers, travel allowance that could be accumulated to purchase a bicycle, the relatively flat urban terrain and inadequacy of public transport in the face of rising demand and an urban system that cannot easily accommodate large vehicles.