Unsafe cycling lanes

12 Feb 2018 / 19:09 H.

    I WELCOME DBKL's initiative to build bicycle lanes. It's great to see DBKL is taking distinctive approaches to make KL a more liveable city.
    I have lived in Vancouver, Melbourne and Vienna. These liveable cities have dedicated cycling lanes and I often used to cycle around.
    I recently decided to try the new cycling lanes in KL and I was shocked and disappointed. I have cycled in many dedicated cycling lanes but the cycling lanes in KL have got to be the worst and perhaps the most dangerous so called dedicated lanes I've ever come across.
    One can't comprehend how DBKL spent RM4 million of ratepayers' money to design and build the lanes. It's awful and dangerous.
    First, it's obvious the lane was not designed from a cyclist's perspective. One would have thought with RM4 million, DBKL would have built a separate proper lane but all they did was just repaint a dedicated section of busy roads and walkways and proudly proclaim it's a "dedicated cycling lane". The paint on some stretches has already faded after barely a month.
    I was surprised on how DBKL can even have any logical sense to use pedestrian walkway as a cycling lane. Don't they get it? Pedestrian walkways are meant for pedestrians and not cyclists.
    I saw cyclists swerving dangerously to avoid pedestrians on the walkway. Whose fault is it if an accident happens?
    I was amused when I read a news report that KL MPs are proposing that the cycling lane should be shared with pedestrian walkways. With these mentality and bizarre thinking that our MPs have no wonder KL can never be a developed city.
    A pedestrian walkway should be strictly for pedestrians.
    The cycling lanes also overlapped on several dangerous intersections of busy roads.
    Why did DBKL not plan the routes first before painting the cycling lanes? The cycling lane is too dangerous and I hope the relevant agencies will consider banning cyclists from using the lanes till the flaws are fixed.
    Cities like Vancouver have a dedicated cycling lane that's built separately from pedestrian walkways or busy roads. Cyclists need not share the lanes with anyone else. That's all I'm asking DBKL. Just keep it simple.
    I also suggest DBKL install bicycle locking areas at certain stretches along the cycling lanes.
    Perhaps in future DBKL should hire a foreign consultant from a liveable city to advise them on how to properly build a world-class cycling lane. The current lane reflects on our "tidak apa" mentality and it's pathetic.

    ST
    Subang Jaya

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