I looked through that bit of research too, and must say I could feel its bias from the outset. The report talks ONLY about the huge increases in numbers of motorcycles as Deng's reforms generated rapid rises in income, but does not mention the rise in numbers of cars, especially in the mid-1990s as China under JZM made car-making a "pillar industry" of the economy. Surely the number of cars in Guangzhou is now in the millions, and, like all other cities, GZ is spending billions and billions to pave ever more roads to accommodate them -- often at the expense of pedestrians and bicyclists, who (I hope) are not subject any bans.

I've not spent much time in GZ in recent years, but over my 20 years in China I've spent lots of time in Beijing and Shanghai. Beijing has taken a path of almost zero resistance to cars, and the result is really awful (chinabiker may disagree!). In the past five years, Beijing's laughably low car registration fees (a few thousand RMB, unless something has changed) have encouraged rapid growth of the car population into the low millions, triggering an orgy of roadbuilding. My flat in Beijing once was in a quiet part of town, between the east 3rd and 4th rings just off Chang'an Jie. Now my compound has become an island surrounded on four sides by greatly expanded roads -- all of which become saturated with slow-moving traffic as soon as they are finished. At rush hour, Beijing's major arteries are little more than parking lots, with the exception that every engine is idling (polluting and wasting petrol and creating an incessant drone of noise pollution). Yes, government bureaucrats, who are highly concentrated in Beijing, very much enjoy their (Chinese-made) Audis and Buicks, and because they have drivers I guess they don't mind the glory of sitting in traffic snarls. If they are senior enough the police come out and clear a path for their motorcades.

Shanghai has handled the situation very differently, and, in my opinion, far, far more intelligently. Here, plates for all vehicles are restricted in number, and thus ALL private vehicles are subject to highly burdensome fees. This approach has been used in Hong Kong and Singapore to very good effect, though of course it makes cars and motorcycles cost FAR more than they would elsewhere. In other words, private motoring is an expensive privilege rather than a right, and you have to pay to play. The result for quality of life is impressive. With some exceptions for major arteries, rather than bulldozing and widening all of its streets as Beijing does, Shanghai has tried to retain a human scale of its neighborhoods. In most older parts of town, roads remain two laners, with nice wide lanes for bicycles and amazingly low numbers of cars in circulation. Traffic does stall at rush hour up on the elevated roads, but it generally flows nicely in neighborhood streets.

Vastly improved subways in both cities have helped a lot. In Beijing people are desperate to escape the wonderful cars they've bought; in Shanghai, cars are out of reach so few had cars to begin with. In both cities, the new subways are a valued option.

Footnote: This is not to say that Shanghai is a paradise. Far from it. The roads teem with millions of ebikes and small-bore motorbikes, often modified to achieve great horsepower, most with no license plates or other registration. And the effect is a bit sobering to the uninitiated. Clearly there is a huge task at hand to step up regulation of existing vehicles, and enforcing the regulations. I've asked lots of people for the rules on small-bore bikes, ebikes and the like, and have not gotten consistent answers. Surely an electric bicycle or electric moped capable of running at 40kph should be licensed, and its driver too. But most seem to run with impunity. No helmets. Slippers or flipflops. No mirrors. Etc.