Shanghai, China ? Bicycles were kings of the road in Shanghai for decades, transporting young and old, lofty and lowly, through the city’s streets and markets.

Times have changed, though, and the automobile now rules supreme.

As for bicycles, well, they just get in the way, according to Shanghai police.

Already barred from some major thoroughfares, bicycles will be banned altogether from important streets starting next year, newspapers reported Tuesday. To further discourage riders — especially those with a tendency to bend the rules — police are jacking up fines tenfold for infractions such as running red lights.

“Bicycles put great pressure on the city’s troubled traffic situation,” the English-language Shanghai Daily quoted police official Chen Yuangao as saying.

Yet cars, buses and taxis put pressure on the environment, argue bicycle proponents, who aren’t taking the proposed changes sitting down.

Low-polluting alternatives such as electric bicycles have grown more popular, but the new rules would ban those as well. Banning bicycles also could worsen overcrowding on buses and subways and prompt more people to turn to automobiles, worsening the pollution problem.

“Bicycles are an environmentally friendly means of transportation that should not be banned,” the paper quoted Zhao Guotong, an official of the Shanghai Economic Commission, as saying.

Bicyclists ride in the rain in Shanghai. The city plans to ban bicycles from all major roads next year to ease congestion brought on by private car ownership, newspapers said Tuesday.