Pedal-powered commuters

Why many heartlanders are ditching the bus for their own two wheels ... annoyances notwithstanding
Ansley Ng Today Online 3 Jul 10;

THEY start cruising in as early as 6.30am, some on shiny new bicycles, others on clunkers with rusty parts, having accomplished the first part of their morning commute on two wheels.

Parking as close to the entrance of the Pasir Ris MRT station as they can - the more conscientious use the newly-installed double-deck bike racks, but some chain their two-wheelers illicitly to sheltered walkways and trees to shorten their walk by 20 metres - they hurry to catch a train to work or school.

By 9am, the area around the station is a sea of some 300 bikes.

These pedal-powered commuters come in all sorts. Over the course of two hours, Weekend Today identified young foreign factory workers and middle-aged office ladies; IT consultants and engineers, secretaries, teachers, students and odd-job labourers.

And they are almost all bonded by one thing: A frustration with packed buses in the mornings and slow, unpredictable traffic.

"If I cycle, the time is controlled by me," said kitchen assistant Gillian Chow, 54, who has been doing the bike-train routine for seven years. "I don't need to get stuck in morning traffic, and I waste less time because the bus has to stop at every stop."

It takes her 10 minutes to cycle from her home to the MRT station, where she catches the train to Orchard Road. Taking the feeder bus could take up to 30 minutes including the wait, she says.

The same response crops up over and over, in our poll of about 40 cyclists, aged 14 to 69, at the MRT stations in Pasir Ris and Tampines - two towns where cycling has enjoyed a huge surge in popularity.

Mr Patrick Ng, 54, takes the train to Lakeside to work after a pay cut and rising costs forced him to give up his car two years ago. "It's cheaper to take public transport," said the quality assurance manager, and cycling to the station "is a form of exercise and a way to save money".

An unlikely sight on a bike in her long skirt and high wedges, with a leather handbag in the front basket, Ms Li Xin Ru said: "Cycling used to be uncomfortable because of my work attire, but I have grown used to it."

Besides getting to the MRT station, the property firm employee also cycles to pick up her son from a care centre - her bike has a child seat installed - rather than take the bus which, she griped, "meanders" through the estate.



THE SECURITY HEADACHE

But clearly, commuter-cyclists here are a tenacious lot: They have to be, in the face of the bike thief menace.

Three in four said they have had their bicycles stolen before, whether from the void deck, the corridor outside their flat or the MRT station.

Office manager Sha Aljunied, 51, lost six bicycles to thieves who even made off with her rusty ones. "Once, a thief took everything but left behind a wheel because it was chained to the parking post," she said.

Pasir Ris resident Ms Chow rides a rusty model that looks too small for her. "I want to get a new bike, but I am afraid it might get stolen," she confessed.

Ms Helen Teo, who helps her husband run L&T Cycle in Tampines, said many customers are not looking to buy new $700 mountain bikes, but a second-hand set of wheels.

Last year, 1,074 cases of bike theft were reported to the police, a spike of 399 cases from 2008, prompting the police to list this as an area of concern in its crime situation report last year.

Some commuter-cyclists even use three padlocks to secure their rides. Others had varied suggestions. Ms Sha, for instance, hopes surveillance cameras - even if just dummy ones - can be installed at bicycle parks at void decks or MRT stations to deter thieves.

Ms Teo proposed having owners of heavy-duty lock cutters register with the police, while bike mechanic Mike Lin said a common parking area could be built near HDB blocks, just like for cars, and fortified with locks that only registered users have keys to.

"The bicycle theft problem is more serious than it looks," said Ms Teo. "No one has been able to solve it for the longest time."

The Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council said it advises residents to store their rides in their homes as the bike racks in public areas are "designed for temporary parking of regularly-used bicycles".



MOSTLY GRACIOUS

What of the oft-raised complaint about brash cyclists on walkways who don't give way or nearly pedestrians people over?

Most intra-town cyclists polled say they don't pedal fast and would give way to pedestrians.

In fact, childcare centre principal Elizabeth Ng was once so irked by the behaviour of a fellow cyclist that she told the elderly man off for trying to run two people off the footpath.

"I told him we are not supposed to ride on the footpath in the first place, and that we should give way to pedestrians," she said.

Outside the MRT stations, the sometimes haphazardly parked bikes could become a problem if commuter-cycling takes off.

SMRT said in response to queries that it has more than 500 bicycle lots at Pasir Ris MRT station and is looking to provide double-deck racks also at Tampines, which would create over 200 lots. "Our station staff conduct checks to ensure that bicycles are not parked illegally or block the passageway," the spokesperson added.

In the end, the unrivalled flexibility of being in control of one's time is what helps commuter-cyclists shrug off petty annoyances like thieves and the hot weather which is, literally, no sweat to them.

"Nobody is expecting you to pedal hard and fast, so why would you perspire much?" said engineer Lee Keng Wah, 47, dressed to pedal in pants and short-sleeved shirt. "I cycle slowly to enjoy the morning view."

He got a prime parking space in the CBD, but chooses to cycle to work
When Mr David McQuillen joined OCBC Bank as its head of group customer experience a few months ago, he was given a parking lot in its Chulia Street office.

But within days, he was sure he wasn't going to need the space for his Honda Airwave multi-purpose vehicle.

Driving to work took 30 minutes, most of it stuck in peak-hour traffic. Taking the bus ate up an hour. "I was thinking to myself, 'you could be doing a lot of things with that kind of time'," said the Pennsylvania native.

Now, he cycles to work daily from his Bukit Timah home, taking between 20 and 30 minutes. But he is one of a very rare breed.

Most people who toy with the idea of cycling to work are put off by the logistics involved, including finding shower facilities. Biking to the MRT station, followed by a more comfortable commute, is the far more popular - and often just as quick - option.

Luckily for Mr McQuillen, 40, there is a recreation centre at his office where he showers. Every Sunday, the father of two drives up with a week's worth of clothes and keeps it in a locker. He, for one, hopes more employers will install shower facilities to give staff the option of cycling to work.

One firm catering to commuter-cyclists is The Bike Boutique at Amoy Street, where from $80 a month, they can shower, change and park their bikes. Store manager Tay Choon Wei said business has jumped three-fold in three years, and the firm will open another bike lodging service in town soon with space for up to 400 bicycles.

It would be unrealistic to expect cycling lanes to spring up cross country anytime soon, but what cyclists would settle for are efforts to educate motorists on sharing the roads with cyclists.

Starbucks store manager Bryan Teo cycles twice a week from home in Sin Ming to his job at the Singapore Land Tower branch. Mr Teo, 35, took up cycling two years ago to lose weight and, like many cyclists, his bugbear is inconsiderate drivers.

Eighteen months ago, he was knocked down (but not badly hurt) by a bus that got too close. Now, motorists who don't respect cyclists get an earful. "I will go up to them and tell them cyclists have the same right to use the roads as they," said the father of two.