In China, the rich drive while the poor make do with e-bikes. Yes, you wouldn't feel comfortable in those lanes, but people still need to live.

Oh I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing at all - just that it is definitely not the case that you can comfortably comingle normal bikes with those lanes.

There aren't many normal bikes left, or rather, they are becoming a luxury.

That was not my experience in Beijing in January 2020, but I have not been since.

I lived in Beijing from 2007 to 2016. Commuters has mostly moved over to electric bikes, heck that trend was starting in 2002. Anyways, peddle bikes were most students who needed the, for on campus transportation. But if you spend any time on the commuter bike lanes around the city, it’s 80% electric.

This is a huge change from my first trip in 1999, when you had huge rivers of bike traffic, and gas powered non-car vehicles required special circumstances (a lot of the gas powered rickshaw drivers were ex military or handicapped). Because most Beijingers were never allowed to move to gas, they embraced electric pretty quickly.

There are plenty of rideshare bikes scattered throughout Beijing, although many seem to be either unused or broken.

Those are now mostly E-bikes, though (as far as I can tell in Chaoyang, at least).