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Feature: Taipei tackling cycling conundrum

Cyclists are an embattled minority on Taipei's hectic roads. Even as the government seeks to promote the use of bicycles as a green alternative to scooters and cars for city commuting, increasing concerns over the safety of cycling in Taipei and other cities around the country have prompted debate over how to increase the number of riders safely without increasing the number of casualties.

"The numbers bear out the perception that cycling is currently a dangerous way to get around," said Chen Jung-ming (陳榮明), first division manager of Taipei City's Department of Transportation.

"Seven cyclists died in traffic accidents last year in Taipei out of a total of 88 traffic-related deaths," he said. "Yet bicycles account for only 2 percent of the traffic volume in Taiwan."

Cycling is currently a loosely regulated activity, with unhelmeted riders switching from pedestrian sidewalks to roads with impunity.

All that may be set to change with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications set to tighten rules regarding cycling.

Mooted changes include laws making helmets and lights mandatory equipment, as well as a tougher stance on cyclists on pedestrian sidewalks and crosswalks except for specially designated stretches of wide pavements.

"Where are cyclists supposed to go?" asked Hua Jian (華健), an associate professor of mechanical engineering at National Taiwan Ocean University.

Hua takes his bike for his daily commute to work.

"Buses bully cars and cars bully scooters, but all vehicles bully bicycles," he said.

"The only bike lanes I see in Taipei are around the World Trade Center area, where they are utilized by few riders," he said.

"It's almost like they put bike lanes where it would be convenient to paint some lines on the road rather than where the lanes will be actually useful to riders," he said.

Hua said the proposed measures are contradictory to the government's overall goal of encouraging more commuters to give bikes a go.

"I've not heard about measures to properly define cyclists' rights on the road, or to give us a workable network of bike lanes so we would not want to ride on pedestrian sidewalks," Hua said. "Instead, every measure proposed places the burden on cyclists because those are the easiest for the government to implement."

"If there is one consistent thing that studies show, it's that the more cyclists there are on the road, the safer it is to cycle," he said. "Any proposal that causes people to give up cycling, including mandatory helmet laws, will be bad for cycling safety."

Wanfang Hospital superintendent Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) disagreed, saying that it is time to extend mandatory helmet laws to cyclists.

"People made a big fuss about the mandatory helmet law for scooters too, arguing that it was an intolerable encumbrance," said Chiu, who agitated for the mandatory scooter helmets for 20 years before it finally became law.

"Yet as soon as the law passed, helmets simply became a part of riders' everyday routine," he said. "I don't see any fewer scooters on the road."

"Every year, thousands of lives are saved," Chiu said. "More lives can be saved."

Hua personally wears a helmet on his commutes. However, he is skeptical that making helmets mandatory will make biking safer.

"There are two kinds of accidents, the kind where the cyclists wipes out and the kind where riders are hit by a vehicle," he said. "Studies show that bicycle helmets protect your head from the first kind very well, but are of questionable help in the kind of high-velocity impact that occurs when a cyclist is hit by a car."

Hua cited research by Ian Walker from the University of Bath in England, who showed that cars gave cyclists less room when passing if they see that the cyclist is wearing a helmet, making it more likely that cyclists are struck from behind.

Chen says that more carrots for cyclists are on the way as well as sticks.

Improved parking facilities are already on the way, he said.

More ambitious projects such as citywide bike-rental kiosks where bikes can be cheaply borrowed and returned at a kiosk near the destination and a more comprehensive system of bike lanes are also in exploratory planning stages, he said.

Despite their differing point of view on how best to improve cycling safety, Hua and Chen agreed on one point -- more bicycles on the roads would be good for Taipei and other cities in the country.

"Taipei is ideal for cycling," Hua said. "Imagine the amount of congestion, pollution and greenhouse gases we could do away with if more people biked."
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