T EXT B Shifting Gears If you do a lot of riding in the city you must have noticed a recent increase in the number of designated bicycle lanes. It was in the spring of 2000 that he City of Chicago produce the first Chicago Bike Map. This map shows bike lanes, the five foot wide section on each side of the str e et d esi gnated by s i gnag e ( 招牌 ) and s tr ipin g ; bike route, where cars and bi c y c les share the street; and multi-use trails that are paved off-road paths. This map is now being updated and he number of designated bicycle lanes will be significantly increased. Actually. the bicycle's role in t r ansportation is expanding worldwide. The Earth Policy Institute reports that 101 million bicycles were produced around the world in 2000 — more than double the 41 million cars manufactured. Bicycles are gaining popularity because they use land efficiently, provide exercise, alleviate traffic congestion, and do not pollute. In the 1990s, 960 million people bought bikes, compared with the 370 million who bought cars. Bicycles are much more affordable than cars and, in some areas, are more mobile as well. In London, the average speed of a car today is roughly the same as that of a horse-drawn carriage a century ago, according to an Eco-Economy Update from the Earth policy Institute. Elsewhere in the world, according to the institute the average motorist in Bangkok spends the equivalent of 44 workdays per year siting in a car, not moving. As for bike use, one-third of the population in Copenhagen commutes to work by bicycle. In Tokyo, where 90 percent of workers commute by rail, 30 percent use a bike to get to their local station. In some cities in the Netherlands, bicycles account for up to half of all trips. Extensive networks of bike paths and lanes connect rural and areas in the Netherlands (which has almost 12 000 miles of these lanes) and in Germany (which has more than 19 000 miles). The greater mobility of bicycles has made bike-mounted police and bike messengers more common. More than four-fifths of all police departments in the United States now have some of their force on bicycles. Usually, bike-mounted officers can reach the scene of a crime before squad cars, and they typically make 50 percent more arrests each day In New York City, an estimated 300 bicycle messenger companies compete for $ 700 mi ll ion of business every year. Lanes and parking spots for bikes require much less paved land than that needed for cars. Six bicycles typically fit into one car lane, and 20 bikes can be parked in a spot for one car. From 1992 to 1997, more than $1 billion of U.S. funds was invested in bicycle infrastructure, some of which was used in New Jersey to build an 800 mile statewide network of bike trails. (471 words) Exercises For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.