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Proposals look set to bring cheer to cyclists in Taipei

The Taipei City Government has proposed adding to the number of bicycle lanes in 10 locations across the city.

These new locations are mainly in the Yuanshan, Dachi, Shihlin and Gongguan districts of Taipei. According to the city's plans, the lanes will provide cyclists with access to various tourist attractions and some will be connected to existing riverside bike lanes.

The bike lane on Jiuquien St in Yuanshan, for example, will pass by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Yuanshan Park. It will then be linked to the bike lane along the Keelung River.

Currently, only sidewalks on the Chunghwa Road and those near Daan Park and Xinyi District have bike lanes.

Su Fu-chi (蘇福智), chief of the city's infrastructure facility section, said that the locations were chosen because the sidewalks are wide enough to accommodate both the bike lanes and space for pedestrians.

Su said that the rights of motorists will not be compromised in the chosen locations.

Parking spaces

Su, however, noted that should more bicycle lanes need to be added, it would eventually affect the reserved parking spaces for motorcyclists.

Sheng Shu-hsian (沈淑賢), the city's transportation planning section chief, said the city has proposed that the width of the bike lanes be set at 1m to 1.5m, which is slightly wider than the average width of a bicycle's handle bars (60cm-80cm).

Su said the city has been expanding its list of potential bicycle lanes ever since traffic regulations were amended last year to allow the coexistence of bike lanes and sidewalks. It also plans to integrate the city's bike lanes with those in Taipei County.

Ho Li-chin (何麗卿), secretary general of the Taiwan Cyclist Federation, cautioned that it was important to integrate all the information about the routes and make it accessible to the public. For example, she said many people do not know that the total length of the bike routes in Taipei City and Taipei County exceeds 500km.

While cyclists welcome the new policy, it has caused diverse reactions from motorcyclists.

Dexter Peng, a researcher who commutes daily by scooter from Liuzhanli to his office downtown, said the policy will provoke anger from the public because there is already a shortage of parking spaces for motorcyclists.

Privileged

"Cyclists can park wherever they want without fear of getting towed or fined," Peng said. "They already enjoy a lot of privileges."

Jimmy Liang, Peng's coworker and also a scooter rider, said there are more motorcyclists than cyclists in Taiwan. Having more bike lanes, he said, will not have much effect since only a few people will use them.

Hannah Tsai, another scooter rider, said she would not mind having bike lanes on the sidewalks. However, she said she would definitely oppose the new policy if the city government decided to demolish some of reserved parking spaces for motorcyclists and give the right of way to cyclists.

In response, Su said that current traffic regulations forbid motorcyclists from parking scooters on sidewalks.

"The policy will simply return the right of the way to pedestrians and cyclists," Su said.

Earlier, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) announced the government aims to build 2,600 km of bicycle lanes by 2011.

According to Chien Hsio-de (簡修德), a spokesperson for the construction and planning agency of the Ministry of Interior, new traffic regulations have facilitated the implementation of the new policy. For example, the width of car lanes in downtown areas can now be reduced from 3.5m to 3m.
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