Q How can Hong Kong be turned into a cycling-friendly city?
Being a Melburnian who has clocked up more than 20,000km of cycling around Melbourne and Sydney, I know what constitutes a good cycling track. Melbourne, compared to Hong Kong, is a delight for cyclists. It's possible to ride more than 30km on some tracks without having to dismount once.
When I moved to Hong Kong, I brought my bike. Here in Hong Kong, I lower and shake my head in dismay when I ponder the state of most cycling tracks. They are a cyclist's nightmare. Bollards. Gutters. 100 metre-long sections of track with 'dismount and walk' signs at either end. Pedestrian seats and signs installed in the middle of cycling lanes. Track closures with no alternative routes. Cyclists who ride three-abreast on the cycle lane, and most annoyingly the absolute lack of ability of people to distinguish between bike track and footpath.
I can't fail to mention the bridge on a main bike track in Siu Hong that has a lift and stairs at either end, yet no ramp. One can't even take a bike on a train in off-peak hours without dismantling it.
If there's one issue that needs to be sorted out before anything positive can be done, it's education - both of users of cycle tracks, and those who design and implement them.
To me, it seems that those people who are involved in 'urban planning' have never ridden a bike. Only when cycle-friendly facilities and policies are in place can cycling in Hong Kong be pushed as a serious alternative to existing transport means.
But there's no real benefit for the government to do anything serious about cycling in the first place, so I doubt that it'll ever happen.