Two Wheels

Two Wheels - By Paul Zimmerman

I ride bikes. Born in Holland, I have been doing so since I was four. When I’m visiting family there, the bicycle continues to be the best way to get groceries and enjoy the city and countryside. In Hong Kong, the range of my day-to-day transport is more efficiently covered using my motorcycle. Here I ride a foldable bicycle once in a while for leisure, or to check out where improvements can be made to the cycling infrastructure.

It should be no surprise that Designing Hong Kong has long promoted cycling. We are pleased to see that it is now the Government’s policy to promote cycling as a green mode for short-distance commuting, where road safety permits, in new towns and new development areas. Using bicycles for the “first-mile” and “last-mile” connection to public transport services expands the catchment areas of train stations and minimises the need for mechanised transport.

With this pro-cycling policy we see tracks and parking added – albeit slowly – throughout the New Territories. Factors affecting the safe increase in cycling are the availability of existing cycling facilities, the width of the road reserve relative to the amount of vehicular traffic, and the presence of other cyclists. Safe sharing of village roads is a problem yet to be recognised.

The official cycling policy is different for older urban areas, where the Government does not encourage the use of bicycles as a mode of transport. For this reason it is not adding facilities. This gets silly, with the absence of bicycle parking spaces at the new Ocean Park and Wong Chuk Hang MTR stations leading to illegal parking.

We regularly see bicycles being used for short-distance delivery of all type of goods – from fresh chicken and pork to cooked lunches and gas bottles. But the demand for cycling by commuters in older urban areas is likely to remain limited to a hardy few.

It’s different for sports and recreational riders. The West Kowloon Cultural District is preparing for cyclists, and the Development Bureau is keen to incorporate cycling facilities in designs for the harbourfront. Kai Tak will have an extensive network of separate tracks and the shared use of footpaths through parks and, hopefully, housing estates. A pilot test is now underway at the Kwun Tong Waterfront Promenade, whereby cyclists and pedestrians can share footpaths branded “greenway”.

Cycling will continue to grow as a localised activity. Given the challenge of transporting bicycles, this provides opportunities for rental businesses like those in Tai Po and Sha Tin, the end points of popular routes around Tolo Harbour. Experiments with dockless shared bikes rented through smartphone apps started in 2016. But these are proving expensive to maintain and cause concerns over random parking. The solution is to change to a system of docked shared bikes and a dense network of parking docks that trigger the start and end of payment.

As a start, rental bikes should be made available at MTR stations. In Holland, the rail company offers rental services of high-quality bicycles. The OV-fiets (in Dutch, OV is short for public transport and fiets is bicycle) is a quick and healthy way to complete your rail journey. How about it, MTRC?

(Article published in Southside Magazine - August 2018 issue)

推動單車政策 - 司馬文

我經常踩單車。在荷蘭出生的我，四歲起已經開始踩單車。即使現在回去探望家人，單車依然是我外出購物，穿梭城市與鄉郊首選的交通工具。

在香港生活的日子，每日往返各地用的交通工具變作以電單車為主，只有在休閒時，或在檢視單車配套的改進空間時，才會取出我的可摺疊單車。

因此，創建香港一直推動單車規劃，實在是正常不過的事，我們亦相當樂見政府最近提倡於新市鎮及新發展區，採用單車作為環保的短程交通工具。事實上，單車非常適合用作連接出門及回家往返地鐵站的最後一段路，亦能大大減少乘搭交通工具的需要。

現在有了便利單車的公共政策，新界的單車徑及泊位都開始增加（儘管有點緩慢）。要單車健康安全發展，單車配套的充足供應，以及全面考慮車流及單車量而規劃的路面闊度都是先決條件之一。元朗、粉嶺、大埔、沙田、馬鞍山、將軍澳、東涌、梅窩、南丫島、長洲、坪洲等都或多或少滿足到以上條件。當然，其中亦有一些規劃未盡完善：西沙公路、大網仔路、西貢公路就正正缺乏單車徑；新界六成（按長度計算）的公路都在標準以下，建設規劃亦相當不正常，一大部分的道路需要與來自棕地工場的大型汽車共用，可見安全共享道路的概念未有被重視。

鬧市之中，單車政策就大相徑庭，不難發現政府並不鼓勵以單車作為交通工具選項，因此未有相應地增設配套。這種思維其實相當幼稚，海洋公園站及黃竹坑站缺乏單車泊位，正正是導致違例泊車的原因，而運輸署拒絕改善道路安全，亦令一眾以單車代步的人暴露在危險當中。

我們在日常生活時常看見以單車短程運送各類貨物，由新鮮雞到豬肉，以至外賣及石油氣罐都包羅萬有。只是基於極端地形及濕熱氣候，以單車作為交通工具在較舊的市區仍較為罕見。

單車運動員與日常休憩踩單車的人相當不同。在清晨，特別是周末時間，周不時在港島看見踩環島單車的人出沒，西九龍文化區亦正準備開放予單車人士。此外，發展局亦積極在海濱引入單車配套，以啟德為例，將來將設有獨立單車徑及與共用的行人路，貫通公園及周邊路段（期望能延伸至屋邨）；在觀塘海濱康文署亦正進行先導計劃，讓行人及單車使用者共用行人路。

相信單車未來會繼續發展，成為一項熱門地區活動，而搬運單車的成本及難處，亦為沙田、大埔及吐露港一帶的租單車生意帶來商機。

以智能電話連接的共享單車於2016年在香港出現，實驗結果可見這種商業模式不單經營成本高昂，亦引致胡亂泊車的隱憂。上月其中一個共享單車營運商宣布退出香港市場，過去亦經常在社交媒體看見顏色鮮艷的共享單車散布郊野公園的相片。解決以上問題的良方，是徹底改變整個共享單車的配套，並廣泛增設備有付費啟用的單車泊位。另外，要識別興建單車維修及租賃設施的最佳地點，我們需要共享單車營運商提供用戶行為數據，以找出最熱門的單車路徑。 

作為起步點，地鐵站周邊應設有單車租賃服務。在荷蘭，鐵路公司會提供高品質的單車出租，OV-fiets（荷蘭語OV是公共交通的簡稱，而fiets則解作單車）就是一種快捷又健康的交通配套組合。港鐵又如何是好？