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SCMP Reporter

China is reputed to be a kingdom of bicycles, but in Shantou motorcycles rule the roads.

  About 13 per cent of the special economic zone's (SEZ) one million residents own motorcycles, compared with an average of just 1 per cent of China's population nationwide.

  A small portion own cars, and many more commonly take taxis.

  However, that is as much an indication of Shantou's weak public transport system as it is of the city's rapidly growing consumer spending power.

  As the local economy boomed, the state gradually expanded Shantou's SEZ from 1.6 square kilometres in 1981 to 234 sq km in 1991, but the city's public transport network has only just begun to try to catch up.

  The SEZ has an average of only one bus for every 10,000 residents, according to Wu Renyu , vice-director of the Municipal Planning Commission, and that is already double the amount it had in 1994.

  That is set to change. Shantou is planning to invest 1 billion yuan (about HK$928 million) a year for the next five years in order to improve its roads. It expects to have an average of 5.3 buses per 10,000 residents by 2000.

  The city will also build 20 kilometres of electric bus routes over the next 15 years, Zhao Wenxin , the commission's head of project supervision, said.

  In the meantime, traffic has steadily worsened as motorcycles, bicycles, cars, pedal rickshaws and pedestrians compete for road space.

  'Shantou has the worst drivers in the country,' a taxi driver who came from Henan to work in the SEZ said.

  'The motorcyclists don't think that they have to obey the traffic rules, and when the traffic police get off work, all hell breaks lose.'   Central Shantou's pavements have been converted into temporary motorcycle parks, and it is not uncommon to see motorcyclists riding against traffic in the bicycle lanes.

  Huang Guangshun , vice-director of Shantou's planning commission, said more highways and railways to inland and coastal cities would be built by 2000, turning Shantou into a transport hub.

  That would be a boost for the local economy, but an enormous strain on the city's transport network.

  So far Shantou has been largely spared the traffic jams that plague Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities.

  Apart from the small, old section of the city, most of the roads have two lanes of traffic in each direction in addition to bicycle lanes.

  Fences run down the middle of major roads, preventing bicycles and motor vehicles from making sudden U-turns. Intersections have both traffic police and traffic lights to regulate the flow of vehicles during the daylight hours.

  At night, though, drivers often run through red lights.



Roads plan looks to keep wheels of progress turning