For Bicyclists, a Widening Patchwork World

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Tokyo's High-Tech Bike Storage Solution

In Tokyo, robotic arms park bicycles, speeding commuters to the office.

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"It is revolutionary," said Minato Karube, 35, a secretary who had pedaled to the parking tower in high heels and a frilly black dress. "The bike comes back instantly."

Since April, when robots went to work parking bicycles at Edogawa's Kasai station, there has been a 20 percent spike in commuting by bike.

The build-it-and-they-will-come approach has also worked in Bogota, Colombia, where Dutch bicycle engineers were recently imported to build bike lanes and redesign traffic flows. In two years, bike use jumped tenfold, from 0.5 percent of all trips to 5 percent.

It also works in the United States. Rainy Portland, Ore., offers compelling evidence that bike lanes can transform Americans into bike commuters.

A recent study by Portland State University found that while just 15 percent of Portland's streets have bike lanes, they attract half of the city's bike travel. Since 1991, counts of cyclists in the city have jumped 400 percent. Portland now has the highest share of bike trips among major U.S. cities -- about 4 percent.

Asia's Bicycle Cycle

Rapid economic growth often generates a populist backlash against cycling.

In China and India, where middle-class aspirations have trumped concern about gas prices and climate change, cars continue to chase bicycles off the streets.

"People want cars, as it indicates development, progress and that you are more influential," said Nalin Sinha, program director in New Delhi for a nonprofit transportation group. Sinha said that when he began riding a bicycle his friends thought that something had "gone wrong financially."

Two decades ago in New Delhi, bicycles held a 60 percent share of traffic flow; now that figure is about 4 percent.

Bike lanes still run alongside many broad avenues in Beijing and other large cities in China, where 500 million bicycles remain on the road. But the bike fleet has declined in the past decade, from a peak of 670 million, while private car ownership has more than doubled, according to a report by the Earth Policy Institute.

Recent history, though, suggests that the cycling decline in China and India may be short-lived. A similar decline occurred here on the island of Taiwan about 30 years ago, when the export-based economy shifted into high gear. Many of the island's 23 million residents bought motorcycles and then cars, as bicycles disappeared from the commuting mix.

The Taiwan government began pushing about 17 years ago for a modest return to cycling. It built rural bike paths. Taipei, the largest city on the island, joined the campaign, building 155 miles of bike lanes along rivers and through parks. Abundant bike parking was provided at transit stations. A network of 5,000 rental bikes appeared.

In the past year, with better facilities for bikers, a doubling of gasoline prices and growing concern about global warming, cycling has continued its climb. In Taipei, about 3 percent of all commuters ride bicycles, a 35 percent increase in 18 months.

At the headquarters of Giant, the island-based bicycle maker, Antony Lo said that if gasoline prices remain high worldwide, government transportation policies will have to change. Then, he said, everyday cycling will sweep across the United States, and later China and India.

"People are waking up," he said. "This is a long-term trend, not a fad."

Correspondent Edward Cody in Beijing and special correspondents Karla Adam and Jill Colvin in London, Ayesha Manocha in New Delhi, Shannon Smiley in Berlin and Akiko Yamamoto in Tokyo contributed to this report.