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If the British transport secretary, Grant Shapps, is searching for a “mannequin” for his bicycle registration plates proposal he may flip to one of many world’s most intolerant international locations: North Korea.
After many years of being frowned upon as a primitive technique of transport for residents of a contemporary, socialist paradise, biking gained official acceptance within the secretive state in 1992 – though it’s formally banned for ladies.
Bicycles are actually an costly however more and more widespread mode of transport for a lot of within the nation, the place non-public automobile possession, though on the rise, continues to be uncommon.
The change of coronary heart was partly attributed to the famine and financial disaster of the Nineties, which made different modes of transport too costly, whereas energy cuts made rail providers unreliable, the US-based web site NK Information stated in a 2017 article.
As of late, Pyongyang is taken into account bike-friendly, largely as a result of there are so few vehicles on the capital’s extensive streets. Bicycle lanes and parking areas are to be discovered all around the metropolis, and bikes are indispensable in rural areas with subsequent to no different technique of getting round.
That stated, the authorities proceed to have a love-hate relationship with the bicycle. Would-be house owners are required to move a highway security take a look at at their native police station, and each bicycle requires a licence plate – a metallic tag displaying the place it was registered, together with a registration quantity, that’s displayed on the entrance.
As in different international locations, bicycles are thought of a standing image in North Korea.
Japanese bikes are reportedly essentially the most wanted, adopted by domestically made fashions which are stated to be manufactured by jail labourers. Chinese language bikes are the least coveted, in response to Beijing-based Koyro Excursions, which has organised biking breaks for overseas guests to Pyongyang and different components of North Korea.
In 2015 it was reported that North Korea had put in bicycle lanes on main roads in Pyongyang, apparently to deal with accidents involving cyclists and pedestrians. It was additionally a mirrored image of in enhance within the quantity of people that may afford a bicycle, though they’re nonetheless past the attain of most of the nation’s 26 million folks.
Whereas licence plates are non-negotiable, a ban on girls using bicycles has been more durable to implement. Ladies had been reportedly forbidden from biking in 1995 by the then chief, Kim Jong-il, partly as a result of he believed the sight of a lady placing a “seductive” pose on two wheels would corrupt public morals.
Others say the reason being extra prosaic: Kim ordered the ban, with fines and even confiscation for offenders, after the daughter of a high-ranking official died after she was hit by a automobile whereas using her bike in Pyongyang.
His son and successor, Kim Jong-un, who has been pictured on horses and amusement park rides, however by no means on a bicycle, lifted the ban in 2012, solely to reimpose it a 12 months later.
Studies from Pyongyang recommend that whereas the ban continues to be in place, harsh financial actuality means it’s not often enforced. Many ladies can be unable to purchase and promote items at markets or take their youngsters to and from faculty with no bicycle.
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