Recently I visited China on business. The district of Shanghai that we stayed in was one of the newer neighborhoods, having been reclaimed from swamp around 20 years ago. Home to the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC), the Pudong district has some interesting characteristics.

For a start, if you live there and want to buy a new car, it must be electric. The streets are very quiet. This takes a bit of getting used to, the lack of noise. But the first thing I noticed was how more relaxed I felt walking around the city. There were still lots of cars travelling here and there, but the atmosphere was as clean of noise as it was of fumes. Even the motor scooters were electric as were many of the delivery vans.

The downside was that there still appeared to be a reliance on vehicles for transport. However, a recent study shows that this is changing, even in China. Conducted in the Jiading District of Shanghai, the study showed that households that had ebikes as well as cars were cutting car use by up to 19%. An interesting development in a country were travelling by car over bike has become a mark of status. It seems thing may be going back the other way. You can read the full article here at Momentum Mag. Enjoy!