Tuesday, December 16, 2008 @ 9:07 PM: Cycling culture
Haha... at the PRESSURE of chieh (she wants it to be typed this way), I am blogging again here...
Well... it was just a piece of very scary news that struck me as I was one quarter reading my bio textbook and having most of my attention on the tv (even though it's just the commercials... but i do miss watching tv). In short a cyclist was knocked dead by a bus in Singapore.
Yeps... was trying to search for such an article online but couldn't find it. Perhaps it would be working up its way into the news soon... but yups... such a thing would be unimaginable in my context, where practically buses give way to cyclists (and not the other way), and especially using the horns only when necessary. Somehow having to cycle on "cycle/bus lanes" give me a safe feeling, which would certainly not be a case in Singapore. Little wonder why my mum is so concerned and upset when I insisted on cycling in Cambridge.
Perhaps it was why Singapore was such a cyclist unfriendly country, especially on the roads, that alternatives looking at using pavements have been on trials at Tampines, with variable results reported. Somehow I do not favour the approach on cyclists on pavements as well... There was once that I experienced a close shave when I was walking on quite a dark pavement when I suddenly felt some light was coming behind me and I stood to the grass, only to have a motorcyclist zooming past me... and this was the same feeling that I got whenever cyclists just zoomed past me with me alert to the danger and giving way first. Would be unimaginable if I wasn't concentrating (e.g. talking on phone) and some crash really took place...
Ok back from the distraction, the impatience that I sense in drivers can be seen be it that a "slow" cyclist is in front of them and a particular pedestrian is taking his/her own sweet time crossing the road at the T-jucntion... somehow they will want to use the horn and irritate everyone around... The bus drivers would justify that they have timings to meet, the van drivers would stress that they have to deliver the goods asap, the car drivers might say they are late for meetings already... but does that few seconds missed just allowing the cyclists the chance to go to the nearest pavement so as to allow the car pass, or letting the pedestrian complete his other 20-30m to the pavement so crucial?
Basically, it just takes more understanding and consideration for others and such tragic cases as mentioned above would have been avoided easily. As a proponent of cycling over private transport in Singapore, it is the cycling culture and education that we have to work on, before a larger proportion of the population would take to the bikes for more significant travel around the small little island. While of course at the same time, more cycling lanes (or mandatory cycling lanes along the idea of bus lanes) would be helpful!
thank you for bringing me memories...
