Taiwan's bike lane colors.

Bike lanes in Taipei (Tun-Hua) are Green, (with less wide area's in other colors). In Kao-Hsiung they are Red (picture above. However in Tao-Yuan Shien they are Red/Blue (see an earlier post in April: "Promising but not in Taipei"). Does this service any specific purpose? Hopefully this is not political. Is there or will there be a Taiwanese standard for bike lanes? (and please.. also for signs, in Kao-Shiung they write "Bike lane" in Chinese on the road, in Taipei it's a sign like in Tao-yuan, but Tao-Yuan sign is different than in Taipei... etcetera.. .) take a look at this bike lane failure here

Why every road in Taipei should have 8 lanes

The 1st lane is used for parked motorcycles and bikes, because often the side-walks just don't offer enough space and people still park there anyhow.
The 2nd lane is for bikes (completely isolated from any other lanes, otherwise motorcycles and car will park and drive on it)
The 3rd lane is for parked cars
The 4th lane is for double parked cars (because this if often more normal than an exception)
The 5th lane is for those litte vans, taxis and buses to pick up people
The 6th lane is for motorcycles, because I really hate them being spread all over all the lanes riding at 60 to 70km/h and drive so very close to my car and damage it
The 7th lane is for cars which go straight
The 8th lane is for cars which need to turn left.

The last reason is that 8 is a lucky number, so it's easy to remember.

We could reduce this to 7 lanes, if car parking is prohibited, however, car drivers ignore this, so still need one lane for parked cars.

More bike lanes , cities excluded

Sorry, your tax money is used to promote tourism in the next year - don't expect benefits to come back in your regular paycheck. So it's not for you - city citizen - who want to get to work easily by bike. Unless ofcourse you work for the bike and related companies that probably will be able to rent or sell their stuff to the tourists. Wonder , wonder which companies get selected...

Meanwhile, Wang said, the transportation ministry will assist local governments in developing five model cycling trails in Taipei County, Yilan County, Hualien County and Taitung County, all of which are known for their tourism resources.

By the way, these government sponsored facilites may kill the fitness clubs that already exist. Unless ofcourse people are smart enough to choose a center where you have professional trianers who can help to prevent you to train incorrectly (and hurt yourself)

News is here

Ride For Dream

Ride for dream website is here and here and the news article is here

New bike lanes and plans

Some more new articles related to biking

here

The potential Taipei bike lane failure

Well, even the bike lanes not finished (the progress is quite slow) the failure of it is already apparent.

I tried the new Tung-Hua North road bike lane a few times. At the distance of only few hundred meters the number of cars, taxis and vans that just bluntly parked on the bike road were countless. Yes, PARKED, I checked and in several vehicles no person could be found. Somee taxi drivers were having their lunch and some other were just taking a midday nap. It did not happen only once, but on EVERY single occasion I rode the lane. The space for normal traffic is now less because there is the bike lane, thus the danger to be hit by a car from behind and the taxis or being hit by a taxi or van opening the door has increased.. This does not mean the bike lane is a failure. How can Taipei change the behavior of these engine driven road users? It's all in the culture and enforcing the law. I drive my car every day in Taipei, but no way I would ever think about parking my car bluntly right there on the bike lane. BTW: Buses still need to pick up people, will there be islands?

The speed of (traffic) light

Ever crossed a big cross-section by bike when the light just changed? While you were completely occupied trying to cross the road before bikers and cars run into you, did you notice how long it took for the traffic light to change from green to red? No? you be surprised. If you look, uh.. count closely, you can find that it only takes 1 second from green to yellow (or orange if you prefer) an the other second goes into to change to red, and I found this is consistent at small and big cross sections in Taipei.

So imagine, at the MOT proposed maximum speed of 15km/h for bikers, how far will you get in 2 seconds? Well simple mathematics will show you that is 4.16 meters per sec, thus around 8 meters! If you ride a road bike like me (I have to confess I violate this informal speed limit) at around 25km/h, that is around 14 meters.

Are roads wider than that in Taipei? Oh, Definitely yes. Try to cross Tung-Hua South road from Hsin-Yi. The gap is huge! Let's take a car, 50KM/H, that would be 26 meters only. Even a car won't make it. So, bottom line. The lights are changing way too fast!

And again, yesterday, I was just halfway on the crossing and there the light went, yellow.. a police officer who was "controlling" (Actually more just copying the traffic light) saw me coming and while it was yellow.. stopped me !! Told me "just wait here" , I was there halfway, beside the police officer, with all buses, cars, and all other traffic passing me in the front and back. That was weird.