The Right Stuff: Bicycles Stage a Comeback on Taiwan's Streets

As the concept of leisure develops in Taiwan, cycling, an outdoor activity which had seen its popularity wane in recent years, has begun to make a comeback. Is there a chance that the bicycle will once again be used as a means of transport by many people? Will cyclists find a space of their own in Taiwan's cities?

Early this year, Business Week's Asian edition selected the ten most outstanding new products for 1998. Included in this list of products were the new NT$ 80,000 MCR Racer composite-fiber bike made by Giant Manufacturing Co. of Taiwan, a new model of car made by Porche and Intel's 2nd generation Pentium CPU. The Taiwan bicycle industry showed once again that Taiwan does not enjoy the label "bicycle kingdom" for nothing.

Taiwan doesn't support its own

In 1980 Taiwan replaced Japan as the world's most important bicycle supply center. Today market share accounts for eight to nine percent of the total world market.

Although Taiwan-made bicycles are high quality, it is obvious that they are not given much importance at home. Jack Chen, who has toured extensively overseas by bicycle, says that when cyclists from overseas come to Taiwan they are surprised to find far fewer bicycles on the road and those of poorer quality than they had imagined. Tsai Chih-feng, an assistant at La Boutique du Velo, one of the few stores in Taiwan that sells high-class bicycles, says that foreigners have been hearing for years that Taiwan is the "bicycle kingdom," so when they visit they are sure to take a "bargain" quality bike back with them. They are both more able and more willing to buy bicycles than local people.

A spokesman for Giant, Hsu Li-chung, said that 90% of Giant's production is exported. The best-selling models are priced between NT$8000 and NT$20,000. Looking at the Taiwan market, the average sale price of bicycles has remained at NT$3-4000. In terms of bike ownership, in the US and Europe there is one bike for every one to 1.3 people. In Taiwan this ratio is one bicycle for every six people.

On the streets of Taiwan today cyclists are only occasionally seen. Many of these are old people. A survey conducted for the Taipei City Office of Traffic Control Engineering showed that, since the 1970s, the numbers of bicycles on the roads has fallen gradually. The numbers of motor vehicles in use is increasing rapidly, increasing the pressure on the already crowded roads. Even the traffic management authority has ignored cyclists. No one even bothered to carry out a survey of the number of journeys made by bicycle. City roads have became increasingly unsuitable for bicycles.

The cities are dead

Giving a small portion of road space to bicycles by establishing special bicycle lanes is perhaps one way to improve the lot of cyclists. However, there is an enormous volume of cars and motorbikes on the roads already and a serious problem of illegal roadside parking. Also, buses need to make frequent stops at the roadside. It seems that there is just no room for bicycles to squeeze in.

The executive director of the Giant Sports Foundation, Ho Li-chin, thinks that sharing of the same space by bicycles and powered, higher-speed motor vehicles is a dangerous mix and that bicycles are better suited to using the same lane as pedestrians. Others think that this would result in dangers to pedestrians. If this method was actually implemented there would also be a range of problems to be faced. In Taiwan, footpaths are a favorite parking space for motorcycles, and goods, shops and hawker stall equipment often obstruct the way. Sometime it is difficult enough for a pedestrian to move along the street, never mind a bicycle.

Hu Jung-hua, who has toured mainland China by bike, says that in China there is a slogan-"Each to their own lane." This is, he says, concise and to the point. Unfortunately, it seems that adopting this system is almost impossible in Taiwan. Jack Chen, who has toured many countries by bike, says: "Taiwan's cyclists also have rights!" Overseas he once saw a group of cyclists take to the streets with car-sized cardboard boxes hanging from their bikes. This was meant to express that they also have a right to use the roads.

Thinking along these lines, Taipei city government once sought to emulate the foreign approach by building a special bicycle path on the tree-lined central islands on Tunhua North Road in Taipei. However, the junctions on the road are very wide, which had the result of cutting the lane into many different sections. Directions are inadequate and it does not provide a safe cycling environment. This has meant that the lane is poorly used and the whole exercise now seems to have been a waste of time. This illustrates the difficulty of planning bicycle paths in cities.

No bicycles

Ho Li-chin remembers that about ten years ago BMX bikes were very popular with children in Taiwan. However, these bicycles were banned from the roads because of their tendency to dangerously weave in and out of traffic and shoot into the road without warning. To this day some schools still forbid their pupils from riding bicycles to school because of the perceived danger. Of course, roads are not playgrounds. However, even large open spaces and parks like Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and Ta-an Forest Park also forbid bicycles because of fears that pedestrians will be put in danger.

Ho thinks that "Only when there is inadequate planning is there danger in putting people and bicycles together." Having seen many bicycle lanes around the world, Hu Jung-hua can only say with a sigh,"Taiwan's cities are dead."

With few quality cycling options available in the cities, many people have set their sights on the countryside and transport their bicycles by attaching them to a rack on the boot of the car or on the roof. However, this is actually illegal and they run the risk of being fined under Article 16 or 18 of the "Highway Traffic Management Punishment Regulations" for making alterations to the basic accessories of a car without registration and inspection. They may also fall foul of "Highway Traffic Safety Rules" by exceeding the maximum car height and width of 2.5 meters. Even if a car does not exceed these measurements, there are no clear inspection standards in existence if the car owner is willing to apply for an inspection.

If cyclists want to take their bicycles by train they also face restrictions. Chang Hung-peng, president of the cycling club of National Chungshing University's College of Law and Commerce and university friends who share his keen interest in cycling, are often stopped from taking their bicycles onto trains because their "luggage" is too large. They are required to send their bicycles as freight. "But they don't take care of goods sent as freight," he says. Unwilling to see their precious bikes mistreated he and cycling enthusiasts from college cycling clubs around the north of Taiwan are trying to come up with a solution to their problem.

Forgotten past

Although the lives of people in Taiwan have improved materially, people's sense of loss is deepening all the time. Today in countries of Europe and North America that are seen as having a high standard of living, bicycles are still an important means of transport and the value of the bicycle is appreciated. In Amsterdam, thousands of cyclists make their way along the paths that run along the banks of the canals each morning; in the Boston area of the US, which is the home of Harvard and MIT and other famous schools, cyclists can be frequently spotted riding at a leisurely pace along the banks of the Charles River.

Monica C. Kuo, of the Department of Landscape Architecture of Chinese Culture University, has taken part in town and country improvement, greening and park planning projects. She says that green transport is strongly advocated overseas. There is special emphasis put on combining blue belts (river/lake banks/sea shore) and green belts (trees). Adding footpaths and bicycle paths is a natural choice.

"Cycling is a pollution-free and energy-saving mode of transport which has minimal impact on nature and it is the best way to get close to nature," she says. Even if the bicycle is used as a mode of transport in cities, society only has to bear limited costs. Bicycles can travel on very narrow roads and do not take up much space. They also take up much less parking space than cars or motorbikes. Related costs are negligible compared to the cost of the expensive Taipei Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS).

"Taipei people have become habitual followers of fashion. They are willing to buy flashy cars and build a monumentally expensive MRTS system, but it won't be so easy to bring the bicycle, which is so popular in Europe and Japan, back to the streets of Taipei," Ho Cheng-tan, director of Taipei City Bureau of Transportation and a cyclist himself, says regretfully.

Shade travels with you

Because of convenience and ease of use, the bicycle is still popular for leisure and transport in Europe. To learn more about why Europeans like to cycle some enlightenment might be gained from looking at the results of the replacement of the bicycle by cars and motorbikes. According to the Environmental Protection Administration, last year 99% of Taipei City's carbon monoxide, 66.3% of hydrocarbons and 95% of nitrides came from mobile pollution sources. This, in all, was almost 90% of all air pollution.

To encourage more people to cycle, the EPA last year for the first time drew on the "Air Pollution Prevention Fund" to provide a subsidy to local governments for the establishment of bicycle paths to encourage more people to use this pollution-free transport mode. After receiving proposals from various local governments, the EPA is providing subsidies to the governments of Taipei City, Chiayi City, Tainan City and Ilan County for the planning and building of a total of around 16 kilometers of bicycle paths. An eight-kilometer path from Lotung Sports Park to Ilan Sports Park has already been completed and opened. Students from Lanyang Girl's High School and three high schools nearby use the bicycle path to ride to school.

Apart from four bicycle paths, the EPA is also actively planning the transformation of unused railway lines and surrounding Taiwan Sugar Corporation land into "shaded paths." "We will begin with a few places and then look to join up each point in the future, in the end joining all the cycle paths into an island-wide network."

Good time for a comeback

With the introduction of the two day weekend and the imminent completion of more MRTS lines, Hsu Li-chung says that "This is a good time for cycling to make a comeback."

Hsu Li-chung, who previously visited Japan on an observation mission, discovered that many working people and students use trains to commute to work or school, but, as it is impossible for everyone to have a station entrance in front of their home, many people ride to the nearest station on a bicycle. In the future, the MRTS will become an important means of transport for Taipei citizens. The city government's Bureau of Transportation plans to encourage the use of bicycles as a means of transport to and from MRTS stations. Taipei City, which is one recipient of EPA subsidies, has already completed planning a cycle path that goes from the Mucha MRTS station along the Chingmei Stream to the National Chengchi University commercial area. Its main function initially will be leisure, with a subsidiary daily commuting function.

In addition, Giant has presented Taipei City's Bureau of Transportation with 1000 specially designed bicycles. These will be placed next to MRTS stations, primary schools, parks and other places where people congregate, for the use of the public when they wish. The aim of this scheme is to encourage citizens to take up cycling again. The city government will stage a trial with 500 bicycles from mid-May this year. A complete set of management measures will be formulated while the trial is underway.

Although there are problems to be overcome, anything is difficult to begin with. As Huang Chin-hung, the vice- president of the ROC Amateur Cycling Association, points out, funding, land acquisition and planning will be both smoother and more large-scale with the participation of government. There is a ray of hope for cyclists. Perhaps we can expect in the not-too-distant future that there will be a renaissance in Taiwan's cycling culture and that Taiwan will no longer be known as the "bicycle kingdom" just because of the size of its bicycle industry.

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Taiwan's bicycle industry is world renowned. The Bicycle Show that is held in March every year always attracts numerous buyers from around the world.

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The numbers of cyclists in Taiwan is decreasing and cyclists are now only occasionally seen on the streets of cities. They are mostly primary and middle school students or old people.

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Bicycles and people mix together. University campuses have become one of the few spots for safe cycling in the cities.

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In the face of polluted air and heavy traffic, urban cyclists are now a rare breed in Taiwan. When will they be able to say good-bye to the dangers they face?

Bicycles and people mix together. University campuses have become one of the few spots for safe cycling in the cities.

In the face of polluted air and heavy traffic, urban cyclists are now a rare breed in Taiwan. When will they be able to say good-bye to the dangers they face?