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Giant chief promotes bike rights

The government was urged yesterday to expand the number of cycle-only lanes around the country to help turn Taiwan into a “bike island.”

King Liu (劉金標), chairman of Taiwan’s flagship bicycle maker Giant, said that despite government efforts to promote cycling to save energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions, cyclists’ safety on the roads is not secured and their “right to use the roads” is not protected at all.

Citing Denmark’s capital of Copenhagen as an example, Liu said that about one-third of the city’s office workers go to work by bicycle — one of the highest percentages of cycle commuters in the world.

Liu attributed Copenhagen’s high percentage of cyclists to the government’s sound plans, investment and relevant laws, including building bike routes alongside every major road in the municipality.

Taking the Netherlands as another example, Liu said the Dutch have adopted a culture of “replacing cars with bikes” over the past century, as environmental protection has always been a major and sensitive issue in the low-lying country.

Liu said there are bike routes on every major road in Amsterdam and Rotterdam as well as parking lots exclusively for bicycles.

He quoted statistics from the Netherlands that he said indicate that each Dutch person owns an average of three bicycles, representing the highest bicycle density in the world.

Furthermore, the Netherlands and Denmark both maintained a “City Bike” service system, allowing people to use bikes free of charge, he said.

Liu said Giant had played a strong role between the government and the public in an effort to make Taiwan’s road conditions more conducive to cycling since its Cycling Lifestyle Foundation was established 18 years ago.

Believing that high fuel prices would result in less automobile use and more widespread use of bikes and electric scooters, Liu said Giant has continued to make efforts in an attempt to turn Taiwan into a “bike island.”

Among the various programs Giant has launched was a service that allowed cyclists to “rent a bike at place A and return it at place B” across Taipei City and county.

“A total of 2.65 million people have used the service over the past six years,” Liu said.

In addition, he said, by cooperating with Giant, the Cabinet-level Sports Affairs Council has since last year designated May as “cycling month” and one of the first days in May as “cycling day.”

Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan has been planning to develop bicycle routes alongside major roads in the country’s 25 cities and counties in an effort to save energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions.
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