Taipei's good intentions fall short for dedicated bicyclists

The city bike paths (aka sidewalks) are in fact a Trojan Horse to force cyclists off the road. Taipei is not alone in this of course but we have now entered some sort of twilight zone concerning the correct space for cyclists. (Yeh, I know ... “correct” ... this is Taiwan.) Pedestrians rightly resent having to share their tiny bit of space with the wheeled newcomers, and vehicle drivers think we should no longer be on the roads because there are bike paths ... right?

The sidewalks, as anyone here for longer than a day knows, are steeply stepped obstacle courses for anyone trying to use them. There are motorcycle repair shops, car washes, extensions of restaurants, laundry lines, shop sign spots, premises for security guards, dead ends, motorcycle parks and illegal buildings jutting out into the “paths,” which, and when wet, are like skating rinks because of the marble surfaces. Then final insult for pedestrians is being exposed to silent, speedy bicycles.

If a cyclist uses the sidewalks in a safe way, i.e., with due care and consideration for other users, the journey will be so slow you might as well go back to struggling over and around on foot. On the positive side, technical BMX types can get plenty of opportunity for practicing bunny-hops over the electricity and telephone junction housings. The very rare, literally green bike paths are invariably used as parking lots and there's no enforcement. Halving the width made no difference. Rather than suffering a death of a thousand cuts, why not just make them extinct?

Politicians can point with some pride to the riverside rides which work well on weekends, but if a survey could be carried out for weekday commuting, they would almost certainly be deemed greatly under-used. And they're still far from being a sanctuary. While riding on a riverside cyclepath I was hit by a woman riding a motor-scooter who then screamed that it was my fault. The attending police officer was rather non-committal.

The practical solution — abandon the fiasco of encouraging bicycles as a means of green transport. In that way, the bus and taxi drivers will lose their argument that cyclists should not be on the road.

Taipei is a wonderful place in many ways but it's time to stop the pretence about being green and bicycle-friendly, other than the riverside bike paths which will do nothing toward achieving the city's carbon-reduction targets.

Anybody want to buy a bike?

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