It’s been three months since the city launched its Citi Bike program.

It’s been three months since the city launched its Citi Bike program. More and more New Yorkers are getting used to commuting by bike. But to many immigrants from China, the cultural difference between bike riding here and in their home country is hard to cross. And it makes them hesitant to take advantage of the city’s bike rental program.

The Citi Bike program, which allows New Yorkers to rent bikes from many hubs for prices ranging from $9.95 for a day to $95 for a year’s membership, has gotten a lot of attention since its inception in May. According to the Department of Transportation (DOT), 113,000 people purchased the membership and 52,9000 trips were made in the first month.

The DOT doesn’t break down members by ethnicity or nationality, and it doesn’t have statistics on the usage of bike hubs in different locations. So it is hard to know for sure whether Chinese immigrants are less enthusiastic than others or if the hubs in Chinatown see less users than those in other neighborhoods. But interviews with Chinese immigrants show that is likely the case.

China is known as “the Bicycle Kingdom.” Even with the boom of its auto market in recent years, bicycling is still a major way of commuting. Because of its long tradition of bike riding, China may have the best established bike lanes in the world. In most cities there, bike lanes are separated from the motor lanes by concrete dividers, flower beds or iron fences. Many immigrants from China are used to these secured bike lanes.

In New York, although bike lanes have been quickly built in recent years as part of the city’s environmental protection efforts, most bike lanes are only divided from the motor vehicles lane by white lines drawn on the ground. This makes many Chinese bike riders feel vulnerable.

Fifty three-year-old Mr. Meng is one of them. Meng came from China to visit his daughter this summer and lives with her family in an apartment near 14th Street in Manhattan. He takes the subway to Chinatown to buy groceries everyday. After Citi Bike was launched, Meng said he thought about switching to bikes. “I heard it only costs 90 some dollars a year. This is much cheaper than taking the subway,” he said.

But when he looked at the busy roads which are full of running cars and trucks, Meng changed his mind. “Roads here are too dangerous. Bikes share the same road with cars. It would need a miracle to avoid accidents,” he said.

Ms. Li from Beijing agrees. She said not only bikes have to ride shoulder-to-shoulder with cars here in New York, the speeds of cars are much faster than they are in China. “In Beijing, traffic is so bad, cars are not able to move too fast even if they want to. Here most of the time cars all move fast. If a bike was hit, it could easily be fatal,” she said.

Ms. Li said she has a friend who purchased the Citi Bike membership for a year. On the first day, when the friend went to work by bike in the morning, the road was not too busy. But when she left work in the evening, the road was full of cars. The friend paused for a while, dumped the bike at a hub and decided to take the subway home.

Compared to immigrants from mainland China, people from Taiwan and Hong Kong are less shocked by the bike culture here in New York. Mr. Chen, who is from Taiwan, said only very few newly established cities there have divided bike lanes. In old cities like Taipei, bikes have to zigzag among cars as well.

Mr. Cheng, who is from Hong Kong, said there are no bike lanes in Hong Kong. Only delivery men and people who do it to exercise. Few people use bicycles as their transportation vehicle.

By Rong Xiaoqing Via Sing Tao Daily
Translated by R.X. from Chinese