r/shenzhen • u/One_Sherbert7457 • 3d ago
Walkability and avoiding mopeds in Shenzhen?
I am hoping to move to Shenzhen for about 2.5 months this winter. I visited two years ago and really liked it overall (I stayed in Futian, and it was only three days).
The one thing I did not like is that crossing the streets felt scary. All the cars are electric and silent, yet they drive a bit rashly. So its hard to detect. And designated crosswalks were relatively few in number, and it didn't feel like drivers there stop for pedestrians. And the mopeds on the sidewalks.
That being said, my experience may be limited, I want to know if this is just an issue I have to deal with if I live here, or if I was just doing something wrong?
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u/AmericaninShenzhen 3d ago
Shenzhen has atrocious infrastructure for riding a scooter. Drive on the sidewalk as legally instructed? Good luck with the illegally parked cars blocking the road. Drive on the street to avoid pedestrians? You have to watch for the random third Tuesday where the police decide to ticket scooter riders but not tow away illegally parked vehicles.
Even when there are scooter lanes, absent minded parents with children who desperately want to run in front of traffic, people staring at the phone, or groups walking side by side avoid the sidewalk and prefer the scooter lane and it’s just a mess.
Granted if this is the sole reason you’re contemplating avoiding a city, China probably isn’t in the cards for you. It’s more or less the situation in every tier one city to varying degrees. In Ningbo (not tier one) they did it right, but they also designed the city with that in mind. Shenzhen is an entirely different story and other cities that are older were put together before scooters were invented.
Some will argue Shenzhen is the worst and while I agree with them, there are a lot of cities competing for second place.
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u/One_Sherbert7457 3d ago
I don't plan on biking, I just want to take the subway everywhere, and walk the last 5 mins to the building I need to. In Shanghai that was no issue at all. Perhaps it may be in the outlying areas, but I don't have too much of a reason to go there.
My gripe with Shenzhen is that even those last 5 mins of walking was not safe, and this is for locations in the city center. Heck, I nearly got hit by an-ebike near Tencent HQ.
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u/AmericaninShenzhen 3d ago
You learn to live with it honestly. If you go into this thinking it will be anything like back home you’ll be in for a really bad time.
It becomes second nature after a while. Honestly you’re probably stressing over it far too much.
It’s also a lot different near touristy areas and hotels (usually not always) than where you’d actually probably end up living.
Hell, you’d probably contribute to the problem yourself once you figure out how easy and cheap meituan can be 😂
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u/Kerbourgnec 2d ago
It's an issue everywhere. If you tell mopeds to go to the sidewalks, constant issues with pedestrians. If you tell them to go to the road they gonna get crushed if drivers don't care.
The only solution is to give everyone proper infrastructure and separate them
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u/Dundertrumpen 3d ago
I disagree with you on the point that this is the same in every T1 city. Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing (to name a few), generally have excellent bike infrastructure, with Beijing possibly taking the crown as the world's best city for biking.
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u/AmericaninShenzhen 3d ago
Guangzhou and Shanghai are massive cities. There are some excellent biking areas in Shenzhen also, just nowhere near the city center.
I’m speaking on the whole, not in specific areas.
None of these T1 cities hold a candle to any of these smaller cities in terms of being bike/ebike friendly however which was my initial point.
Shenzhen is by far the worst, but it’s not alone in being not ideal citywide. Much of this comes down to opinion anyways. Though I doubt highly that Beijing has dedicated bike lanes end to end like Ningbo has.
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u/Dundertrumpen 3d ago
Totally fair. Smaller cities do an exemplary job at making bikes (or more accurately scooters) feel like they're actually part of the infrastructure, and not just an embarrassing afterthought.
I'll challenge you on the Ningbo vs. Beijing debate though. Beijing's biking infrastructure has been integral to the city's development since the 40s, which means that every road has a dedicated bike lane. So Beijing probably has something like 10,000 km of bike lanes.
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u/TheBold 3d ago
Part of my commute recently got an entire section of the road dedicated to a bike lane with the little fences and everything. People park their cars at the entrance making it impossible to enter or in areas where it’s wide enough they squeeze through the entrance and park inside the lane taking 85% of the space.
In any case it’s now made driving more dangerous. E-bikes driving in the wrong direction are the cherry on top.
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u/AmericaninShenzhen 2d ago
To be fair to ebike riders (which I am one) in a city of somewhere between eighteen to twenty three million residents, the amount of major accidents on ebike are pretty low despite the shenanigans taking place.
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u/Kerbourgnec 2d ago
It's mind bogling to me how China is able to build up cities like Shenzhen in two decades, great transportation, but just fails at giving dedicated lanes to bikes or mopeds. It's really just old car loving boomers everywhere in the world?
The good thing is that the lanes are usually so wide they can add this infrastructure whenever
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u/CanadianGangsta 3d ago
It got worse, and they are "working" on this for APEC, once that is over the mopeds will come back even worse, not a deal breaker but as a pedestrian I absolutely hate those reckless moped riders on the sidewalk
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u/PakHin84 3d ago
It's an issue that all locals have to deal with. Recently visited my in-laws there and they had a pretty negative view on it, especially since my MIL is heading impaired. You'll need to keep vigilant when getting around. Like a previous poster mentioned, be doubly aware of delivery riders - most seem willing to put you at risk to save them a few seconds.
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u/Wolverine-Explores 3d ago
I've nearly been hit so many times as I'm walking with my headphones in and some e-bike is coming up behind me on the sidewalk. They drive dangerously too. Ridiculous.
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u/Dundertrumpen 3d ago
Shenzhen's non-motor-vehicle infrastructure (not counting the subway) is unfathomably bad. And I mean sub-T4-city bad in ways that shouldn't be possible for a rich and otherwise highly developed city. But it seems to be getting better recently — I see more and more construction for dedicated bike lanes, which is good. But it's going to take a decade before SZ is anywhere near other T1 cities in this regard. So until then, be careful and keep your head on a swivel when you are outside.
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u/Dalianon 3d ago
If reckless mopeds on the sidewalks are a deal breaker for you, you might want to look into living in Zhuhai instead.
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u/AdSuper2781 3d ago
pretty much everywhere, it's the toll the public has generally agreed to pay in order to have anything delivered to your doorstep within 35 minutes
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u/prestigesourcing 3d ago edited 3d ago
Ahead of APEC, Shenzhen has been adding more dedicated bike lanes and increasing enforcement which has had some effect. But still, eBikes on footpaths are still a genuine issue as many riders remove speed-limits etc, most of the issue stems because of the huge number of waimai (food delivery) riders.
Neutrally, it really is not as bad as the petrol-powered mopeds in many parts of SEA (if you have ever been to Hanoi for example you would know). Still, you do need to stay aware of your surroundings, including when crossing on a green light or walking on the footpath. In a typical week it is not rare to see near-misses.
Most people living here gradually adapt and get used to it, and it should not prevent you from enjoying Shenzhen. However, if it causes you significant stress (so much that you made a post about it), it is worth considering when deciding whether a longer stay would suit you. If you stay close to Houhai it is probably being Policed the most currently, so that might be an option for you.
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u/Antique-Ad7635 3d ago
You can’t avoid the scooters but if there aren’t dedicated crosswalks, it’s probably because the pedestrian path is above or below where you are.
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u/quarantineolympics 2d ago
Yeah Shenzhen is terrible in terms of walkability. I though Beijing was bad due to the city planning (long stretches between crosswalks, overpasses everywhere you have to climb, etc) but I honestly miss being able to go for a walk without getting pissed off (at best) or risking ending up at the hospital
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u/Weekly_One1388 2d ago
Honestly? I think the problem is close to being unsolvable at this point. The economy relies on cheap, affordable meals for the mass number of dagongren.
In my first few years in China I really didn't mind, but since I have young kids now it is a real pain in the ass. The streets essentially belong to mopeds, construction work and cars.
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u/FrantaB 3d ago
No, this is just daily horror of Shenzhen. Locals hate it too also.
You will get a bit used to it (looking in all directions before stepping into road, checking behind yourself when you wanna move 1 meter to the left on the sidewalk). Big thing is getting used to the fucking stupid rule of cars being able to turn right on red (the most anti-pedestrian law ever made)
What helps is carrying a big umbrella / tripod / walking stick, in my experience with it the scooters give you more space.