Bike rage - the new rage

Cycling is one of the best and most enjoyable sports around. I love it. It’s fun, it is healthy exercise, it is environment friendly, it is not noisy, it is much cheaper than driving, and there are lots of instances of bonding with fellow riders, and you can talk to each other as you cycle. In short, it is really one of the best activities that we can engage in. Back when I was in Melbourne, I used to take the bike everywhere, if it was within a 20-30 min ride. Since returning to KL, I’ve been mostly transporting myself via my car. However, now that I have bought my bike, I do intend to make more use of it, and cycle to places within a 20 min bike ride radius, such as supper, breakfasts on weekends, The Curve, etc. It is very heartening and encouraging that The Curve has bike racks for people to lock their bikes to. Hence I can cycle 20-25 min there, have a workout, and cycle back again, which would give me both cardio and resistance. What a great idea!

However, we have to co-exist with other road users, namely cars and motorcyclists. In my opinion, the more dangerous ones are the motorcyclists. Long being the ones intimidated/bullied/picked on by cars, they are now no longer the last item on the road food chain, and hence have decided to take their frustration and newfound sense of superiority over the latest additions to the road chain – cyclists.

Other road users have to realize and understand and accept that cyclists are here to stay – and we are only growing to increase in numbers. The Malaysian government has to make our roads more bike-friendly, have more cycling lanes to accommodate cyclists, in our bid to be a world class city. Being world class does not merely mean having high concrete towers.

There is a new term coined for road rage against cyclists: bike-ism. And as this article shows, it can have dire and possibly fatal consequences too. There is a new an alarming trend of backlash against cyclists. Knowing how our drivers are here, the Government needs to do something to educate and ensure our drivers do not behave in dangerous ways towards cyclists. This is an opportunity to Malaysia to really take a lead in Asia and make a name for ourselves as being a pioneer here in being cyclist- friendly, and showing the path to an environmentally conscious nation.