Cyclists fail to follow rules
I welcome your editorial on cyclist education and have some comments that might be worth publishing (“It is time for cyclist education,” Aug. 27, page 8).
I am a hiker, not a biker. From that vantage point I have, for many years, observed cyclist behavior in the pedestrian and bike-only trails available in the Taipei and New Taipei City areas. Bikers endanger themselves as well as others by failing to follow some fundamental safety rules that were drilled into me when I was five years old.
First: “Always look where you are going, not at the scenery and not where you came from,” which should be modified for the current generation by “not at your cellphone and not at what you are texting.”
In my experience, somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of bikers are not looking where they are going.
Second: “Keep at least your index fingers on the brake lever.” More than half of riders have no fingers on either hand on the brake lever, and even some 30 percent of bikers riding down ramps clearly labeled “walk your bike, do not ride” fail in this respect.
Then there are violations of common-sense rules: In areas where the signs indicate single-file driving I see bicycles going two and three abreast, and sometimes bikers passing slower ones by going into the lane reserved for traffic in the opposite direction, even when there is oncoming traffic.
Bikers riding the Keelung bicycle path from Guandu Temple toward Qilian seem to think the designated pedestrian area is for their exclusive use.
In all these cases, people on rented bicycles are no different from those on their own; people cycling in what appear to be school-led groups are among the worst offenders and senior people in the groups do not call for discipline.
There is a rule that I was not taught, probably because I grew up in a climate much milder than that of Taiwan, that should also be mentioned: Always carry an ample supply of water with you.
I say that because three times I have met cyclists who passed me then stopped 100m or 200m ahead, later passed me again and, by the third time I passed them it was clear that they had lost so much water that their blood pressure was failing to feed their brains with enough oxygen.
Fortunately, I do carry an ample water supply, and I was able to give them 1 liter to prevent them for going into shock.
However, there are also other complicating factors that are part of government duty, not part of biker education. Almost all the pathways I have walked have motorized traffic that is not maintenance or policing. Some of it is, in all probability, willful abuse.
However, I think a lot is due to the fact that many of the access points into the pathways do not have signs that indicate that access by motorized vehicles is prohibited and that the rules are not enforced.
Moreover, motorized vehicles I have encountered are not just trucks, cars and motorcycles; they include motorized bicycles, scooters and two-wheeled balance guided conveyances. All of these are disruptive to both bikers and hikers.
I think exempting motorized vehicles for the handicapped from the rule is sensible, but for the rest, the rules are not enough if they are not enforced.
Emilio Venezian
New Taipei City
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