With a limited budget of £5 million, equivalent to half a cycling lane in London. The Sutton project has seen a 75% increase in cyclists and 13% increase in bus use and a 2% decrease in car use. These are modal shifts that transport planners in London can only dream about.
According to BBC, the Singapore authority (LTA?) had requested information about the cycling promotion project. It would be nice to see some of the idea also implement in Singapore.
Hi, well for starters, in terms of maintaining the peace between the different factions (Buses, motorist, pedestrians and cyclists), we first need to demarcate a lane width of about 1m – 1.5m from residential zones to the state sanctioned ‘efficient’ mass transport system. Next, we need some space where cyclist can safely park their bikes before they can hop onto the ‘people movers’ that are the ‘vision’ of efficient transport (ie the mrt and bus system). One common refrain seems that cyclist and their bikes are an eye sore, especially when the bikes are left haphazardly outside the mrt and bus interchanges. So some space need to be clearly marked as parking zones. However with so many bikes left hanging around without their owners’ attention, it is no wonder that would-be thieves are out to make a fast buck, especially in these economically challenging times. That is precisely where it makes more sense for small folders – they can help the government save the resources of demarcating parking zones. However the with current law to allow folders onto mrt and buses only from after 9.30am to 4.30pm – this defeats the incentive for public to adopt cycling as a way of daily commuting, relegating foldies to weekend recreational commuting. With alittle more consideration and physical effort by the relevant authorities, it is actually possible to convince more car owners to reduce the usage of their cars to the weekend (thereby reducing our carbon foot print, save on petrol, reduce risk of fines, ) and to commute by bike over the working week – all it takes is the change in the rule to allow peak travel, and to have specialized compartments for luggage and bikes – for starters: even 2 chambers – one at start of the train and one at the tail, would be a good compromise. No need for unruly bike lots or to spend more money on surveilance cameras. Kudos to the Sutton Project! Hopefully our authorities can take a page or 2 from it!
Good news for JZ88 bike owners is that the bike folded down to the size within the luggage size limit, which means no peak hour limit if you “hide” it in a bag. (http://jz88.com/jz88-blog/2007/12/smrt-replies-on-bikes-and-dirty-buses/)
Very good suggestion to have one or two MRT compartments for luggage and bikes. It would help to relax the peak hour limit for other folding bike. I also agree that would unlock the real potential of folding bike- as a personal commuting tool compliment to the MRT system.