My quick synopsis and commentary of a recent article from the Chinese language news wire:
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Taipei City has finally been forced to terminate the ill-fated Dunhua Bike Lanes.
The lanes have been routinely criticized for having been constructed as a knee jerk reaction to the first bicycle boom in 2008, when the city sought to win political points on the heels of a trend.
Now, the city is proposing a redesign. But after an initial NT60 million initial investment, Taipei residents are reluctant to fund the redesign fearing a continuation of the same type of ill planned, ill thought-out city project that has been the hall mark of Taiwanese urban bike trails.
The lane runs from Min Quan E. Rd. to Keelung Rd. at 4.6km.
Ever since its opening in Sept. 2009, the city has received regular complaints. Many residents feel the basic design has many errors, for example the rubberized material is easily damaged and becomes slick in the rain. Furthermore, the lane cuts between pedestrian walkways and bus lanes forcing citizens to dodge bike traffic in order to catch a bus.
What this really shows is how little the government really considers the needs of cyclists before spending public funds on these types of projects. Often these bike paths are a quick means to pander to the electorate and to spread money to various construction firms.
It is disappointing when a city loses a bike lane when they should be creating them, but that is the risk of letting unrelated factors influence necessary infrastructure. If you're just going to do it half-assed, then don't do it at all.
Well, there goes my idea for a series on why Taipei's bicycle lanes are useless.
ReplyDeleteI think from memory Dunhua is the only Taipei street with a designated bicycle lane too, all the other streets have signs telling cyclists to ride on the footpath.
Shame really, I'd collected 20 or so photos and was going to start publishing them soon.
Meanwhile how can Taiwan proclaim take cycling seriously when they're making it intentionally difficult to get around by bicycle by pulling shit like this?d
No OZ, continue with your project. I'm sure they'll try to revive this idea again before the next election.
ReplyDeleteAh ok so I've got a bit of time then. Still might as well get it out of the way so I'll hopefully get that out soon.
ReplyDeleteThere's just so much functionally wrong with Dunhua Road's lanes that it's difficult to know where to begin.
"The lanes have been routinely criticized for having been constructed as a knee jerk reaction to the first bicycle boom in 2008, when the city sought to win political points on the heels of a trend."
ReplyDeleteThey went in just before the Deaflymplics, so everyone could see them. From the start, there was little enforcement. I walked up Dunhua every day on my way to work and back again in the evenings. I never saw a single person getting ticketed for driving in them or blocking them.