How can Hong Kong promote safe cycling?
As a Dutchman who grew up with a bicycle, it is sad to read the reports of children dying in bicycle accidents for the wrong reasons. More will follow unless we realise that the only solution is to embrace cycling in selected towns in Hong Kong as a mode of transport, not just a Sunday fun tour.
In places like Yuen Long, Tseung Kwan O and Tung Chung, the distances between facilities are large and the land is flat. The bicycle is an obvious (clean and sustainable) and increasingly popular mode of transport to get to and from home, shop, restaurant and station.
However, not since Sha Tin have town planners attempted to design new towns for comprehensive use of bicycles. Most new towns have just a few paths, assuming that getting out on a bicycle is just a Sunday hobby.
The solution is not to separate cars and bicycles, but to have bicycles and cars share space. This will require road markings and an education of road users of simple rules. Most important is to bring back a discipline of marked crossings without light signals, and strict enforcement of the rule that vehicles have to stop once a pedestrian or bike has a foot or wheel on the crossing.
The upside in the new towns is that they can easily be converted into cycle towns. The roads are wide with ample reserves, making it easy to mark cycle lanes or build separate paths. Moreover, bicycle racks are required for parking in public areas. Housing estates, shopping malls and transport interchanges need to add parking facilities for bicycles. Some of these could require a small safe-keeping fee payable to an attendant, who at the same time could run a little repair business. An ideal 'small economy' opportunity that would put a stop to the increasing number of rusting bicycles hanging off road railings next to, 'Don't park your bicycle here' signs.