I see Yu Lai Fan is making a campaign issue about her proposed "Cycle Parking Platform"
According to her, the people's aspirations for this wonderful project are being frustrated.
Behind all the rhetoric, the issue is simply that she wants to spend $18 million to construct a platform next to the library, where 360 bicycles will be crammed into a neat little grid that resembles no public bicycle parking area in any city that actually takes cycling seriously as a mode of transport. This indeed is a fantasy island solution.
A similar parking area was erected in Mui Wo some years ago, and it demonstrated the problems with this idea.
People will not queue up in an orderly fashion and put their bikes in place. It only takes two or three to dump and lock their bikes carelessly and access is blocked for everyone. When the bell is ringing and the gate is about to close, patience is not to be expected.
So the result of this plan if implemented is, a few months later, a pile of rusty bikes on the expensive platform, and everyone else parking along the railings as usual.
What's the alternative?
The present ad hoc parking along the railings basically works. But clearly there are some problems. A few very simple and cheap actions could make this work much better and be more convenient for everyone.
To work, it has to be simple and convenient for everyone, and not require a permanent traffic cop making everyone park correctly as the CPA would.
The problems are due to the small number (generally 2 or 4) of bikes "double parked" that stick out on the pier, and are prone to fall over, not being attached to the railings, as the 1st photo. The people that do this are the same ones that would gridlock the CPA.
http://lulzimg.com/i24/20dae5.jpgMost of the 300 or so bikes on the pier are hooked over the railing and project less than a metre on the pier.
http://lulzimg.com/i24/811422.jpghttp://lulzimg.com/i24/019e44.jpgThe pier is 6 metres wide, that leaves over 4 metres clearance: Main Street is about 3 metres wide at the best, 1.6 at the narrowest.
The path below the hotel where the hundreds of pedestrians are jammed coming off the pier is 2.2 metres wide: that is where the bottleneck is, not on the pier even with all the bikes parked on it now.
So my modest proposal was to put racks along the railings, put up a notice saying all bikes must be locked to the rack. Cost: a few tens of thousands. Much less than they've already spent on "site investigations" already. If it didn't actually work, it's a rounding error. The government, and YLF aren't interested in even discussing this (I've tried).
Even simpler: one bucket of paint, draw a line 1 metre from each railing and put up signs stating that bikes must be attached to the railings and parked within that area. That would give pedestrians at least 4 metres clearance, wider than any part of Main Street.
A few enforcement operations, sticking official notes on offending bikes, and "pier pressure" from pedestrians would make people keep behind the line. Telling people to "park legally" is impossible now. Currently ALL bike parking on Lamma is technically "illegal", because despite most residents having a bike, there are zero facilities for them. The government simply declares that you are a lawbreaker if you park your bike anywhere at all.
So why is YLF so hot for this CPA? Does she care about providing facilities for her constituents who use the pier?
Or is it perhaps more about the jobs for the boys for pouring $18 million in concrete into the harbour? (Technically, it's "over" the harbour", but the result is the same.)
Instead of "struggling for 10 years" to build this idiotic platform, she could have solved this "problem," immediately, for basically nothing, by getting proper racks. But the concrete contractors wouldn't get their piece of the action then.
Instead of the silly platform the budget should be allocated to upgrading the pier itself. It's about 50 years old and needs regular maintenance anyway. Next time around, widen it by say a metre, put racks, and perhaps even a roof, on it. Then we would get something that was useful and not yet another white elephant concrete excrescence. Remember: this plan came from the same great minds that brought us the wonderful and beautiful digital clock landmark in the middle of the sitting out area opposite The Island Bar.
Just think for a moment: $18 million to park 300 bikes. Cost: $60,000 per bike. Most bikes are worth $3-400.
And as the problem is just down to three or four bikes parked out of place, really that amounts to $6 million to deal with each of those bikes.
It's completely insane and is not just a waste of money, it will actually make the situation worse and create conflict as they try to force people to use the CPA, and those that do will be bumping their shins and tripping over getting through the jumble of bikes in the "official" CPA.
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