Motorcycle Taxis to the Rescue
Risa Fang 's driver powers down a crowded sidewalk during the evening rush hour, depositing the 25-year-old hotel sales executive on to a prime downtown shopping plaza here.
Ms. Fang's bright white jacket, stylish perm and fashionable handbag might suggest otherwise, but the trendy young woman hasn't been chauffeured by limousine, or even a cab. Instead, she is part of a more downmarket trend. Gridlocked streets and strain on public transport have China's most glamorous city backpedaling to revive a long-forgotten service: motorcycle taxis.
Shanghai planners long ago set out to ensure that the city never went through the kind of motorcycle stage that has made the streets of some other Asian cities look, sound and smell like a motocross rally. It has tight motorbike restrictions, including steep license-plate charges and an outright ban on new cycles with engines larger than 50cc. Motorcycles number less than 7% of the 1.5 million vehicles that the government says ply Shanghai roads.
The world's car makers have done well in Shanghai, but Sundiro-Honda Motorcycle Co. has written it off as a market for all but its scooters and mopeds. The China joint venture of Japan's Honda Motor Co. manufactures in Shanghai, but pared sales efforts a few years ago, when the city "started to forbid the motorcycles from several areas and decrease the number of licenses," says company official Pu Min.
And until recently, paying to sit behind a stranger and wear someone else's helmet would have clashed with the well-heeled image so cultivated by residents of Shanghai. But Ms. Fang, the hotel sales executive, says motorcycle taxis are "really fast when the traffic isn't good," straightening her hair after easing off a red Honda.
Commuting is an uncomfortable grind, even though Shanghai boasts multideck highways, 15 Huangpu River crossings and live television on city buses -- not to mention the Maglev, the world's fastest train. "Traffic remains a large problem in the city," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in an otherwise mostly rosy business-environment report last year. When a new mayor sought to project a populist image with a hop on to the subway one morning in early 2003, local press reports described him struggling to even get into an overcrowded train and then arriving 15 minutes late at the office. There seems little getting away from the fact that China's richest city is also among its most crowded.
A spare helmet dangling on the handlebars of a motorcycle advertises an alternative. Riders can often negotiate a slightly lower fare than the $1.20 automobile taxis charge for a few kilometers. But time is the real savings: Bikes are easier to hail and speedier.
The "mo-di" drivers aren't licensed to take passengers. And while motorcycles-for-hire have long existed in Shanghai, as they do elsewhere in China, they have until recently been operated mostly as package messengers or stopgap transport in the city's outlying districts.
A police spokesman, Zhao Qihong, declines to respond directly to questions about the legality of mo-didrivers. He says motorcycles are allowed to carry an extra person. Regulating businesses, he adds, falls under the scope of government departments focused on commerce.
Safety sometimes seems a secondary concern. Although their questionable status means drivers typically lack insurance coverage, they still appear to break more rules than average on Shanghai's dangerous roads. One idling driver, wearing what looks like a construction hard hat, says he'll change to a strong "winter helmet" with a face mask when the weather gets colder.
Riding on the back of a bike, Li Yong pulls up to a swank Shanghai office building during the morning rush with a mobile telephone pressed to his ear and an awkward-fitting yellow helmet clashing with his crisp gray suit. The balding building manager explains that a motorcycle taxi cuts a full 45 minutes from his commute, shaving it to 15 minutes. "It's convenient because the traffic isn't convenient," Mr. Li says. Waving off risks inherent in such a tradeoff, he adds: "They're not dangerous fast; they can just move around easier."
Dai Weimin tells a passenger he has been a mo-didriver for five years. Maneuvering his clean black Honda 125 between a white BMW sedan and a dirty tanker truck, followed by several veers into the oncoming lane of traffic, he explains growing passenger demand is making it easier to put his daughter through Shanghai University. But, he says, that doesn't make it a great job: "If the traffic weren't stuck, you'd be riding in a car."
“摩的”重返上海街头
Risa Fang的司机在傍晚下班高峰期载著她在人流如织的人行道上穿行，将这位25岁的酒店销售主管送到了市中心的一家大型商场。
从Fang亮丽的白色外套、时髦的卷发和时尚的手提包推断，这位新潮女士搭乘的定是一辆小轿车，最次也应该是一辆出租车。可惜都不是。她乘坐的是一种低档交通工具－－摩托的士，俗称摩的。而她不过是越来越多的摩的乘客的一员。由于道路拥挤，公共交通运力紧张，这种曾被人们遗忘的交通工具在中国这座最为繁华的城市重新大行其道。
很久以前上海的规划者们就定下计划，确保上海不要像亚洲一些城市那样看上去如同一个摩托车的赛车场。上海对摩托车有严格的控制，包括收取高昂的摩托车牌照费和不允许排气量超过50毫升的新摩托车上户等。据政府部门的数据，在上海150万辆机动车中，摩托车的比例不足7%。
世界各国的汽车厂商在上海都取得了不错的业绩，然而新大洲本田摩托有限公司(Sundiro-Honda Motorcycle Co.)认为在这个市场它的产品只有小型摩托车和机动脚踏车才有生存空间。这家日本本田汽车(Honda Motor Co.)在中国的合资公司在上海设有生产基地，但几年前就减弱了在上海的营销力度，公司管理人士朴民(Pu Min,音译)称，当时上海开始从几个方面限制摩托车，并减少了牌照的发放数量。
直到最近，乘坐摩的－－坐在一个陌生人后面并戴著别人的头盔－－可能并不符合上海人极力打造的阔绰形象，但Fang说，“在交通拥堵的时候，摩的真的很快捷。”她从那辆红色本田摩托车下来时，整了整头发。
虽然上海标榜拥有四通八达的高速公路、15条横跨黄埔江的通道并且能对城市公交车进行实时监控，甚至还有世界上速度最快的磁悬浮列车，但交通状况依然不尽人意。美国商会(U.S. Chamber of Commerce)在一份对上海颇多赞赏之词的商业环境报告中也表示，交通依然是上海的一个大问题。2003年初，上海一位新任市市长希望通过早上乘地铁上班的行动树立其平民形象，但当地媒体报导称，他甚至没能挤上拥挤的地铁，结果上班迟到了15分钟。这也反映了一个不争的事实：中国最富裕的城市也是中国最拥挤的城市。
车把上搭著一个多余头盔的摩托车为人们提供了另一个选择。打摩的的人常常通过讨价还价，将几公里路程的价钱谈到略低于出租车的1.20美元，但真正节省的是时间：摩的招收即停，坐上即走。
摩的司机没有载客的执照。虽然摩的在上海已经存在了很长时间，但像在中国其他地方一样，摩的一直主要从事包裹递送的工作，或是在城市周边地区充当临时的载客工具。
公安局发言人赵奇鸿(Zhao Qihong, 音译)没有正面回答有关摩的司机合法性的问题。他说，摩托车是允许搭载一名乘客的。他补充称，监管责任应由政府商业部门承担。
人们似乎并没有过多考虑安全问题。摩的司机尚无合法的身份，因此他们通常都没有保险，而他们在上海危险路段的违章行为却要比一般人要多。一位在路边等活的摩的司机戴著一顶看似建筑安全帽的头盔，他说，等天气变冷的时候，他会考虑换一顶结实的、带面罩的“冬季头盔”。
一个早晨的上班高峰期，李勇(Li Yong, 音译)拿著手机，坐在一辆摩的的后面，驶向他所在的高档写字楼，不合适的黄色头盔和他身上崭新的灰色西装极不相称。这位秃顶的建筑经理解释称，乘坐摩的使他花在上班路上的时间缩短了整整45分钟，只要15分钟。李勇说：“摩的很便捷，因为交通太不方便了。”他对乘坐摩的的危险性并不在意，他说：“摩的的速度并不危险，它们在路上行驶十分灵活。”
戴为民(Dai Weimin, 音译)告诉一名乘客他当摩的司机已经有5年时间了。他驾驶著这辆干净的本田(Honda)125在一辆白色宝马车和一辆脏兮兮的油罐车之间穿过，拐了几个弯驶上了交通道。他说，现在乘坐摩的的人越来越多，因此靠这个赚钱供女儿念完大学会更加轻松。不过他说，这并不表明开摩的是一项好工作：“如果交通通畅，人们还是愿意坐汽车。
