The old joke was that it was car that you could not tell
which end was the front and which end was the back--“It was the same car coming
and going!” It was of course the
Studebaker. The car and the company were
founded by the Studebaker brothers in South Bend, Indiana. The brothers: Peter, Jacob, Clem, Henry and
John founded their automotive business in 1852 and around the turn of the last
century began producing electric cars.
The company enjoyed a modicum of success even through the Great
Depression. During the Second World War,
Studebaker provided cargo and personnel trucks for front-line service.
Studebaker had a solid reputation for craftsmanship but where they
really stood out was in design. The
company had a knack for realizing the future and it showed in their wild body
styles. During the war Studebaker
steadfastly prepared for the post-war boom coming to the American economy. The company hired legendary designer Virgil
Exner and trotted out the slogan “First
by far with a post-war car.” That car
was the 1947 Studebaker Starlight Coupe (pictured), later came the four-door
Champion Sedan.
In post-war America the ideal of solid middle-class living was
embodied in the automobile. For much of
America’s modern-day history people have related wealth and standing to the car
they drive. Such a human phenomenon is
occurring anew but this time the country is not the United States, it’s
China. The country is no longer the “sleeping
dragon.” It will soon be the largest
consumer base on the globe. Beginning in
1980, China's economy began a slow change from a centrally-planned system that
was for the most part closed to international trade to a more market-oriented
system. This change has created a
rapidly growing private sector. The
Chinese private sector has money and disposable income. This new middle-class China is a huge sector
of society in the country and people, like the middle-class of 1950s
America, are demanding cars.
For decades visions and images from China showed a
definitive two-wheel culture. People
road bikes in China for generations.
This is now not the case. Or so
the Chinese thought. Observers are
beginning to notice the bicycle returning to the streets in the major
metropolitan areas (it never really left the rural locales) due to the fact
that there are now just too many cars in the way of each other. A second reason is the abject smog. We remember the images of the Beijing
Olympics with bright sunshine and clear skies.
That was temporary as the government ordered a pre-Olympic shutdown of
all factories. While the plants were
shuttered the air cleared--just in time for a
global audience.
Well, the
factories are at full steam once again and have been creating some of the worst
air pollution on earth (that is real smog pictured, and not just a cloudy day). Earlier this
month the air quality was so poor it could not even be recorded on pollution
indexes (read more at the website Atlantic Wire). The smog was literally off the charts. So, in order to help clear the air, a new
spike in bike ridership has come to China.
The Chinese Government once embraced the car and discouraged bikes, even
taking the step to convert bike lanes to traffic lanes. As a result, China is now home to six of the ten most polluted cities on earth. Some old bicycle policies are beginning to come full
circle and the bike is back in vogue as a people mover and planet saver.
Please visit our website www.stickybottleteam.net. We recently reviewed six great bikes that
sell for under $1,000 and we selected one as our top choice.
 |
| And you think LA has gridlock? This is Beijing. |
No comments:
Post a Comment