By Jeanette Wang
ST Art Researcher
jwang@sph.com.sg

 

SOMEONE up there must have been trying to test my resilience today. On the final day of a car-free pledge I took on Dec 1, it pours. Cats, dogs, pigs, everything.

Well, like most of the past 24 days, I still got on my bike and pedalled to work. In the rain. Soaked. Cold. Bliss. And I'm looking forward to the ride home.

This must be true love, to persevere with bike commuting through all sorts of weather conditions. I'm not just keeping at it because I made a pledge on this blog. I'm doing it because I know it's good for me and for the earth.

Here's an update on the final week of my car-free pledge:

- Wednesday, Dec 16 -- Success: Decided to run instead of bike. Ran to work and back home.
- Thursday, Dec 17 -- Success: Rode to work and home, running an errand in between.
- Friday, Dec 18 -- Success: Rode to work (left bike in office) and ran home.
- Saturday, Dec 19 -- Fail: Day off. Drove about 15km for an errand (had to deliver a huge and heavy package).
- Sunday, Dec 20 -- Success: Day off. Ran to church and took public transport home.
- Monday, Dec 21 -- Semi-success: Drove to work (had a big bag of Christmas cookies to deliver), but biked home.
- Tuesday, Dec 22 -- Semi-success: Ran to work, but drove home.
- Wednesday, Dec 23 -- Success: Day off. Stayed home.
- Thursday, Dec 24 -- Success: Rode to work and back home.

Final figures (estimated):

CO2 emissions saved: 79.45 kg
Extra calories burnt: 5,397 cal
Money saved: $53.90
Extra time spent travelling: 113 minutes

It is definitely possible to commute by bike in Singapore. We have smooth roads, good weather (usually), short distances to travel on this small island, and an increasingly more considerate population of drivers here. More cyclists are also realising there is an etiquette to follow if we want to share the road.

My resolution for 2010 is to keep bike commuting or run commuting (something new I started the past week) between work and home. What some readers have commented is true -- the start is the difficult part, once you get the hang of it, you will enjoy it and keep at it.

Will I sell my car? Honestly, no. Because the car still trumps the bike at certain times, like when hauling big loads around, when weather is too foul to ride, when lazy, when sweaty is not appropriate for a candlelight dinner. The convenience of a car, as most Singaporeans can attest, is something hard to do without. But I promise to try my darnest to.

In my travels I've been to quite a number of bike-friendly cities, like Portland, San Francisco, Melbourne and this little German town called Sigmaringen. There are bike lanes, bike parking stations every few metres on the sidewalks, people commuting on bikes everywhere. My dream is that Singapore will one day become like them, but the fact is a bicycle culture takes decades to build. We can hope for bike lanes here, but the reality is that there just isn't enough space to spare in Singapore.

Perhaps the best and most immediate thing we can do is just to change our mindset. Drivers should treat cyclists like another vehicle on the road, cyclists should ride as they would drive. Offices should be more accommodating to cyclists (provide showers, lockers, bike parking spaces, or even allow bikes in buildings). Public spaces -- roads, pavements, parks, etc -- should be shared. Cyclists should give way to pedestrians on sidewalks, if they expect drivers to yield to them on the roads. It's only fair. Everyone should just be understanding and considerate toward each other.

Also because the next cyclist or driver or pedestrian you pass could well be a relative, friend, a friend of a relative, or a friend of a friend. And a cyclist can also be a driver, a driver a cyclist... and everyone surely is a pedestrian at some point in time. Put yourself in each other's shoes and the world will be a better place.

According to Virgin Vacations, the world's top 10 most bike-friendly cities are:
1. Amsterdam, Netherlands
2. Portland, Oregon
3. Copenhagen, Denmark
4. Boulder, Colorado
5. Davis, California
6. Sandnes, Norway
7. Trondheim, Norway
8. San Francisco, California
9. Berlin, Germany
10. Barcelona, Spain

Maybe someday Singapore will feature on that list. If not in my lifetime, then hopefully in my children's.

Merry Christmas and keep pedalling.