In a recent weekend protest involving hundreds of Lycra-clad cyclists, police insisted they take a 'safer', less public route. The event also saw transport companies refuse to let some participants get on trains with their bikes to reach the demonstration, and one of the cyclists got knocked down by a truck on his way home.
That Sunday was a mini-version of what cyclists say they face every day on Hong Kong's bike-unfriendly roads.
The government estimates that of the 12.3 million traffic movements each weekday in Hong Kong, 62,000, or 0.5 per cent, are by bicycle. It says 97 per cent of those take place in the New Territories or outlying islands, while only 3 per cent take place on Hong Kong Island or in urban Kowloon.
Cyclists argue that if road conditions were safer for them in urban areas, more people would take to the roads on two wheels. In the first 10 months of this year, there were 1,407 accidents involving cyclists, resulting in 1,362 injuries and four deaths. Last year, there were 1,914 accidents involving cyclists, 10 of whom died. Another 10 cyclists died on Hong Kong's roads in 2003. In the majority of these cases, police said the cyclists were at fault.
A report on the state of cycling in Hong Kong commissioned by the Transport Department last year found that Hong Kong had 170km of cycle lanes - all located in the New Territories or outlying islands - with 140km of these lanes located in and around new towns. The report found that just 27 per cent of Hong Kong was suitable for cycling, due to steep slopes that the average biker would not attempt, and inland bodies of water.
As well as an absence of cycle paths, the report found that 'the second reason why cycling was much less popular on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon was considered to be the real and perceived levels of safety, since cyclists in these areas are required to cycle on the road in competition with vehicular traffic because there are no cycle tracks'.
