Earlier on, there is virtually no opportunity to cycle on pedestrian paths. It is still illegal to cycle on pedestrian pathways except in Tampines. At a certain time in history, he gets a respite because NParks create PCN that allows cycling. Upon trying, he get a shock. The speed limit is 15 KM max. He must dismount to push across bridges. He even have to push across road crossings where he had to share with pedestrians. He gave up and continues to cycle dangerously on roads.
The condition does improve any better when the Immigration check points were migrated. Now Causeway check point is on BKE. He still can access to the Immigration by going via Woodlands Center Rd but at busy hours, all traffics are directed to the express way. The worst is the Second Link. He cannot even try. He concluded that it will no longer be a good cycling experience to cross over to the neighbor country for a cycling tour.
After a while, a minister officially acknowledge that cyclists can cycle across pedestrian crossings that is part of PCN but must do so discretely so as not to endanger others (http://www.mha.gov.sg/news_details.aspx?nid=MTU5MA%3D%3D-FQsQbvrhWsU%3D). He is also shocked to find that there is a fine of $5000 and a one year imprisonment for cyclists who are rash in crossings while motorist only gets $1000 and 3 months penalty. He also noted that reckless driving by motorist only incur $3000 and one year imprisonment. He began to wonder which mode of transport is more lethal. He reads that there are 18 cyclist deaths each year on average. He wonders how may dead pedestrians caused by cyclists. He has lost count of how may times a motorist speed across the side road crossing despite that he already stopped at the crossing. Meanwhile the penalty of cycling across some bridges increases from $500 to $1000.
Even with the heavy fine, he decided that he should try the PCN. Upon trying, he discovered that cycling on PCN is not as easy as he though. There are places where the path is very wide and cycling is smooth. There are also some places where the path can be narrower than the width of his bike. At other times the path is so uneven that it feels like going on a roller coaster ride. He was shocked to see some path ends near road with right angle turns into a small lane or there is a pillar right in the center of the path. He is also sick of having to go around bus stops with right angle turns and sign boards right in the path. According to some, it was said that PCN are originally design for pedestrian only. It is only extended to cyclists as the distance get further and further.
After cycling through most of the PCN, he is sick of the NParks web site that shows the PCN routes. It is simply not user friendly. He has to zoom in at the right place to see the route. He need to find the route name to get to the route. He wonder why he has to get the name first rather than seeing the route first. He find it hard to plot a route from one place to another with that web site. Finally, he gave up and plotted the whole route with annotations on Google Map. With that, he could plan a route much easier. He called his map PCN on Bikes (https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/edit?mid=zYN7CFn96k94.k5NpSMlBEPvI).
As he has gone through most of the PCN, he began to notice a lot of designs that is not really mean for cyclists. He got so sick of such inefficient design that he blogged about it in Blogger (http://jnhiew.blogspot.sg/2013/03/is-pcn-really-for-cyclists.html). A Facebook group founder in a cycling group suggests him to show the exact issues by photos on a smaller stretch of route. He decided to try on the Woodlands Yishun route. As a result he produces 22 pictures where he think it can be improved (https://picasaweb.google.com/106611639464075912591/PCNIssues). He also wrote to NParks on the suggestion of the leader. NParks did respond to the mail. However, after 6 months, there is nothing done to improve the situation.
He then decided that he will go on PCN only when he is tired or in group cycling events. In this way he could cycle slowly without being very alert of motorists. He accept the remarks by a co founder of a group that PCN are 80% full and 20% empty. He don't want to treat it as useless unlike many of his fellow cyclists.
Recently he accept the request of the cycling group to try the URA Master Plan cycling route. He tried 4 of them. One out of 4 of them has many dismount and carry/push. He sigh again but realize that the route is really difficult to plan as it goes through places where the infrastructure does not give alternatives. He sadly accept the fact. One route goes through the Kallang Bishan PCN. He is relieved that there is something done to bypass the many dismount and carry along the Kallang river. He used to go on the route and find that he is usually the only one doing that. He beliefs that most cyclist snubs this route.
On and off he posts some PCN discrepancy on the cycling group's page. It usually attracts much comment and jokes about it. He did had a long exchange of words with a proponent of the bad design. He was wondering on which side the proponent is standing. Another proponent came in with similar remark and even say that the road crossing design is better. He really cannot stand such remark so he do a Google Street View on the route to see if that remark is true. It turned out that there are 5 similar crossings in the same route. 4 of which is joined with pedestrian crossings before crossing the road. The one in contention is actually quite far from the pedestrian walk way and that there is another pedestrian crossing (very near HDB block) near by. He thus concluded that the route is cut off not because of good design. It is just a poor design that does not consider the cyclist.
The master plan will not be complete till a number of years later. Meanwhile, he wonders whether he could live long enough to see it. He does hope that with the number of cyclists increasing, the government will do something to cater to the needs of cyclists.
It really strikes him that he know he has all the rights to use roads. Some how some motorists say he cannot use it because he did not pay road tax. Sadly to say that these ignorant motorists will only be forced to acknowledge the wrong view when he gets injured by them. And the worst thing is, he may not even live to see justice served when he gets killed. Talking about rights?
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