Chased Three-Wheeled Taxis, Running City: Between Beijing's Three-Wheeled Taxi Regulations and Environmental Policy (2000)

Chased Three-Wheeled Taxis, Running City: Between Beijing's Three-Wheeled Taxi Regulations and Environmental Policy (2000)

China in the year 2000. Riding the momentum of economic growth, the city was rapidly expanding. In Beijing, motorization was repainting the lives of citizens, muddying the city air and filling the streets. Against this backdrop, three-wheeled cabs became a popular means of transportation for the common people, sometimes weaving in and out of overcrowded traffic. With their simple construction, they were a valuable source of income for rural migrant workers and a daily sight connecting every corner of the city.

However, in Beijing, which is in the midst of a rapid urban transformation, it was no longer considered to fit the "modern image of the city. The city government, which has been promoting orderly urban landscaping and environmental beautification in anticipation of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has placed restrictions on three-wheeled cabs. They are banned from entering the city center and their registration is restricted. The reasons given were "environmental protection" and "landscape maintenance," but in reality, the intention to erase "miscellaneous scenery" from the city was transparent.

The jobs were taken away from the shadowy laborers who supported the city. Called "peasant workers," they were placed in a different legal position from city residents, and their protests were drowned out by the noise of the city. The face of Beijing is clean, quiet, and organized. Behind the facade of a clean, quiet, and organized Beijing, social divisions were deepening.

The three-wheeled cab regulation is not only a reorganization of urban transportation, but also poses the question to us, "For whom is the city for? The question is still being asked by the afterimage of the three-wheeled taxi left behind in the fast-moving city.