The Tarnish of Traffic

 These are the high holy days of Taiwanese cycling with Taichung Bike Week, Maxxis KOM Wuling Ride, The International Bike Festival and the Tour of Formosa, an annual cycling event for hearing impaired competitive cyclists.

Taiwan's Tourism Bureau has stepped in to cover much of the sponsorship and to craft a unified narrative of Taiwan as a cycling paradise.

Last week's Tour of Formosa bore witness to an event that highlights why cycling in Taiwan will never be wholly embraced internationally as anything other than a production and logistics center-- Taiwan's notoriously dangerous traffic culture.

During one leg of the Tour of Formosa on one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in the country, the notorious Suhua Highway, a tour bus loaded with Chinese tourists tried to intimidate and overtake the group of cyclists.

According to the report published by TVBS, the driver became angry that he had been caught behind the peloton and angrily laid on his horn. When nobody reacted, he swerved across the double yellow lines into the oncoming lane and tried to push past the riders and their support and safety vehicles.

When the driver was eventually stopped by the police, he just unleashed an stream of abuse at the officers and the issue was resolved.

Even when an event like this happens in a high profile event such as the Tour of Taiwan, it seems oddly routine and almost tame by the standard most regular riders in Taiwan are accustomed to. Taiwan's dangerously aggressive driving culture and the lack of political will to do much about it will continue to leave visitors with little but faint praise for Taiwan as an Asian cycling leader.

Visitors to Taiwan almost unanimously list the nation's driving culture as the overriding negative caveat for any trip.

The Tourism bureau only wants to hear about the mountains, but the traffic in the cities are the blight that cast the long shadows over any marketing plan. It seems that if the government spent as much time and money making the cities safe to ride as they do in keeping cyclists safely out of the cities, some real progress might be made on the issue.

Delusions of Grandeur: Mayor Jason Hu Lauds Taichung's Bike Lanes

Taichung Mayor, Jason Hu, opened the Taichung leg of the Tour of Formosa with a speech in which he declared the city's bike lanes to be among the nation's best. Oddly omitted from the speech at the last minute were references to unicorns, flying livestock, staged moon landings, Obama's birth certificate and the notion that the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Cubs always have next year.

Press Release (Translation):

"On the 4^th, the cyclists came to Taichung City Fulfillment Amphitheatre to start their next challenge. Jason Hu gave awards to the top three cyclists from the last stage. He spoke through the translator for the cyclits, stating  that Taichung has the best bike lanes. The scenery is gorgeous, including lakes and hill climbs. He welcomes the cyclists to experience the beauty of Taiwan." 

Here are some examples of the "best bike lanes".

The Brick-Zag (Nantun)


The Parking Strip (Daya)


The Sidewalk (Chingshui)


The Bricks To Nowhere (Shalu)


Narrow To Nowhere (Taichung Port)


Hou-Feng hype (Fengyuan/Houli)


The Scooter Lane (Dakeng)


Largesse (Daya)

An Autumn Chill

The weather will be cooling off over the next couple of months and it really makes for some ideal cycling temperatures. It has just gotten chilly enough in the evening to warrant a light windbreaker.

It is also a great season for Taiwan to host another cycling event.

The Tour of Formosa is now on, with the Russians taking the early lead.

The Tour of Formosa is a cycling event held between October 29th and November 7th, featuring deaf cyclists in a seven stage tour around Taiwan. The Tour of Formosa is being organized by central and local governments, as well as by the National Sports Committee, which outlines their objectives as follows:

Objective:

To raise awareness among hearing-impaired cyclists the opportunity

to race and friendship ties, as well as enhance the hearing-impaired

cyclist of the technical standards, as well as to cultivate Taiwan's

bicycle more hearing-impaired young athletes, through organized

Tour de Formosa tournament race, marketing the beauty of Taiwan

culture and landscape, and enhance Taiwan's visibility; modeled on

the historic Tour de France tournament, who wish to apply for this

competition to become a major international cycling event. ...read more

Over the past few years Taiwan has been the host of several international sporting events, including the W World Games and the Deaflympics. This is definitely a step to achieving international recognition as a center for sport. Too bad we have to use that gawdawful "Chinese-Taipei" moniker.

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Speaking of chills in the air...

I would like to bring attention to a recent event that, although not directly related to cycling, can have some very severe implications for bloggers like myself who are not shy in dishing out criticism.

Apparently, Taiwan's Ministry of Education has called on National Taiwan University to curtail students activities on the university message board concerning political commentary as far as it criticizes the party in power or their representatives.

For this blogger and others who also happen to teach in schools (where I am blogging right now), this can be seen as a very slippery slope and an attempt to impinge on our freedom of speech. The trend to monitor and limit free speech has been on the rise since 2008 and I hope more people will pay attention to these troubling events.

Anybody else feel that chill?

Read more: here, here, here, here