These days shared bikes are becoming the center of attention in my WeChat friend circle. Many of my friends are sharing photos of themselves riding bikes, especially during the weekend in natural parks, and I can see people logging in (登录) and out of shared bike apps.       

I’m very happy that there are shared bikes on the road. They have saved us a lot of time during special situations, and on beautiful, clear days, people enjoy riding them outside the city.

I tried shared bikes last week, and I didn’t like them very much. I think the first shared bikes without baskets are designed for athletes. They are very hard to ride, and the seats are not comfortable. It makes me wonder whether people really like riding shared bikes or are just saying this to agree with others.

A friend secretly told me she tried the bikes to fit in. She doesn’t like bikes and finds Beijing’s roads too hard for bike riding. But recently, the only way to hang out with her friends is riding out of town together. To join in social activities, she had to pick up bike riding again.

Another friend admitted that he started talking about and sharing photos on shared bikes in order just to appear modern and fashionable to friends. He started paying attention when shared bikes first came into use.

These views will give me something new to think about when I ride these bikes again.

By 2050, the world will be urbanized(都市化的). Nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. Many of them will develop into large cities with a population of more than 10 million. Moving people around each large city will be a very big challenge. The traffic speed in London will fall to about 7 miles per hour. Around the same speed it was 150 years ago, in the days of the horse and cart.

But city planners are working on ways to solve the problem.

Self-driving Cars     Robot Taxis	Self-driving cars or robot taxis will play a part. It’s predicted(预测) there’ll already be more than 30 million self-driving cars on the road by 2040. People don’t need to drive by themselves. By 2050, there will be robot taxis in the city streets. We can call the taxis just at a single touch.
Buses	Pubtie transport(交通工具) like buses will be highly personalixed(个性化). People don’t need to look through the bus timetable. Buses will be connected on the Internet and make the way by themselves according to where the people need to go.
Bikes	Bikes will be helpful on that slow last mile of travel, too. Cities could build special roads for them high above city streets. Xiamen in southeast China already has an 8-kilometer bicycle way to protect riders like that. That may be another kind of urban transport in 2050. It will be multi-level(多层次).

For many people, urban transport in 2050 might be cool.

June 3rd is World Bicycle Day. Bikes are popular types of transportation (交通类型) after buses and subways in the world.

Would you like to ride bikes to school?

What do children in Germany (德国) need when riding bikes?

In Germany, children must go to school by bike with a bike license (驾照). When they are in Grade 5, they must have about 30 lessons first. After that, they can have two paper tests. Then, they do some riding practice at school. The policemen can give students more help. At last, the students have a test on the road. If they pass (通过) the test, they can ride bikes on the road!

Some students think it is a little difficult to pass the test. But it is really important for them to learn to follow rules and keep safe (安全) on the road.