Push, Pedal, Pull: Some Driving Forces in China

Here in Minnesota, it’s hard to imagine life without a car. Country life as we know it would be far more difficult – if not downright impossible – without the aid of four wheels and an engine. Even in cities where mass transit is available, most people prefer the driver’s seat to a seat on a city bus or light-rail train.

We’re a nation in love with – and dependent upon – our cars. Our lives have been so built around them that cars have long since ceased being conveniences we can do without. Like it or not, cars are necessities here.

So far, anyway, China has avoided a similar love affair with the automobile, not that there aren’t millions of Chinese dying for a little romance with a sleek Mercedes Benz or even a sassy little Toyota. Why do so few people own cars in China? They simply can’t afford them.

Per capita income in China is $5,600 a year (compared to $40,100 in the United States), which leaves little discretionary income to spend on a car and a place to store it. But even if the majority of Chinese people had the money for their own vehicles, cities would struggle to find space for them all.

China has 1.3 billion people living in an area about the size of the United States (population, 295 million), which means Chinese cities are crowded, busy places with crowded, busy streets.

If the automobile becomes as ubiquitous in China as it is in the United States, will there even be capacity to park and store all the new cars? Could the existing road system support millions of new vehicles? Is there adequate land for highway expansion? How would more cars affect China’s already polluted air?

Those are all questions China must confront as it ascends as an economic superpower and its population grows more affluent, and more people go car shopping.

Until then, people without cars find inventive ways to move about.