It does make one angry. The sheer crass stupidity of tossing brand new bikes into the trash compacter deserves wider publicity.

Probably not. They seemed careful to take only bikes that had had notices affixed.

They had a photo record of the bikes, so if you just removed the notice and left the bike in the same place it might have been taken anyway.

I wouldn't risk it myself though.

Media coverage:

We should have a story in the SCMP tomorrow.
Possibly also Apple Daily and Oriental Daily.

DBC Radio, a DAB (Digital, not the party) station, also available online, I think, at www.DBC.hk may have an interview at 10:30 tonight

Here's a press release from the Hong Kong Cycling Alliance.

They're all so slow. Very first media coverage in Lamma-zine today, afternoon, a few hours after the action with photos from several photographers and several links to more info.

By the way, below are my candid photos of the spreadsheet and photo record of the govt. officials used to select which bike with notices and notices removed to take. And the T-CPA (Temporary Cycle Park Area) today, including some of the saved bikes.

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I think this is absolutely disgusting. If you think how much time and effort Yu Lai Fan put into leaflets being handed out at the ferry pier at the time of her campaign, when it affected her, yet i haven't seen anyone leafleting about the removal of bikes at all, something that affects us, and it gets pushed under the carpet! I hope it does get some publicity, if it happened in other countries this would cause an outcry!

What this offensive event demonstrates is that the relevant government departments are NOT concerned with serving the interests of the large majority of people. They are acting against the interests of citizens at large. They are blatantly allowing themselves to be used as tools to further the interests of a vested minority.

2 days notice followed by destruction of valuable private property is obscene! This government action is clearly immoral. And their very organized way of going about it with photographs and police presence shows that they are not just carrying out a routine activity in ignorance of its unfairness. They are fully aware of how contentious and controversial their actions are. They must, therefore carry the full burden of guilt for the gross corruptness of what they have done.

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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
----- Margaret Mead

Such a waste... 100% theft. I don't have a bike, but I would have wanted to take one of those "unreclaimed" bikes.

No, your bike would probably have been safe as ONLY bikes leafleted and numbered on Monday morning have been removed. They have to warn you first and give at least 24 hours notice before they're legally permitted to confiscate and destroy your bike.

They kept meticulous records with spreadsheets and photos of all 386 (?) bikes. Obviously well-planned and -orchestrated between the Lamma police and officials present from at least 5 Govt. departments, likely at pretty large expense to taxpayers. But they looked pretty surprised and miffed about the fierce (verbal-only) resistance from residents and the presence of reporters and several photographers, including SCMP.

But mistakes happen in these occasional pier cleanup exercises and your gfriend definitely deserved those chocolates and wine for saving your bike! I removed my own no-notice bike the night before, just to be safe. The first furious complaints from bike riders who lost their bike today are coming in already....

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Bike seizures anger Lamma cyclists
Bicycles are destroyed after two days' warning, as officials seek to make room for emergency vehicles
Jennifer Cheng
Mar 29, 2012

Government officers angered Lamma islanders by targeting hundreds of bicycles parked near the ferry pier at Yung Shue Wan. After tagging 387 bikes with removal notices on Monday, yesterday they confiscated 13 which their owners had not removed in time.

The seized bikes were taken to a nearby trash compactor to be destroyed.

Yu Lai-fan, Lamma's district councillor, said one major reason for the clear-out was to make room for ambulances and fire engines. The exercise had been conducted annually for eight or nine years, she said, and was designed to remove unused bicycles and other items (which yesterday included a suitcase and a scooter) chained to the railings.

Police and staff of the lands and food and environmental hygiene department cleared away the bikes.

Only bicycles with a removal notice attached were confiscated. Bicycle owners had had two days' notice to remove their machines. And from now on they may continue parking their bikes at the pier.

Yesterday, two islanders stood guard at the pier to warn people to park elsewhere.

"People have been parking their bikes here for 20 years," said Liz Gower, a long-time Lamma resident. "A two-day notice is not enough: what if the bike owners are just on Easter holiday? I've complained to the government in the past to remove construction material, and even that is given at least a one-month notice."

Yu said the problem was that the bicycles were parked on government land. "If the bike owner really was on holiday, then they should have just parked it at home. But people are still allowed to leave their bikes at the pier. We will continue to tolerate it because there is no other place to park right now. And really, we are just trying to clear out abandoned bikes to make more room for emergency services to get through and for more bikes to park there."

But Gower said some of the confiscated bicycles, especially the children's bikes, did not look unused, but brand new and rideable.

Yu said: "We understand that many Lamma Island residents are cyclists, and a bicycle parking area would really solve the issue here." A proposal to build a bicycle parking area at Yung Shue Wan, between the pier and the public library, is the subject of a public consultation. It would require reclaiming land from the harbour.

Opponents say it would remove the harbour's last stretch of natural coastline and also cause congestion.

jennifer.cheng@scmp.com

[3 SCMP photos illustrated this story, by veteran photographer Edward Wong. Link added by L-G:
http://www.scmp.com/files/SCMP/News/Static%20Files/SCM_News_bicycle29.ART_1.jpg]

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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
----- Margaret Mead

The bikes are coming back and the authorities will tolerate the “offence” for another year. The people governing Lamma are arrogant. If there was a true will to help the bikers and solve the congestion, they would have provided floating platform or Alan’s racks, even as a cheap temporary measure before some permanent solution. Would not this be the easiest way to win the sympathy of Lamma dwellers? This is an arrogance of the authority that was elected not because of its particular qualities or compassion or understanding of Lamma’s needs, but because of unscrupulous and aggressive self promotion, and clever, manipulative PR techniques.
There was no reason to carry on with this brutal action. The loss of a bike is probably not as painful as the intimidation and the show of arrogance and feeling of helplessness and insecurity. Who will legally challenge the authorities fortified on taxpayers costs with an army of lawyers?

Really? Well, at least we know why she's called "You Lie" Fan

I agree very much with Rambler.
My feeling is that this is less about the money than it is about control and authority. It's about ego, I think. It's not really about the issues and as long as appeals are made on the level of practicality and reason they will fall upon completely deaf ears. It's not really about 'the best solution' to the 'bicycle problem.
It's about: "This is our Island and we'll do whatever we damned well please! You are merely guests here - so shut up and stop making problems!"
From what I've seen, people with connections to the local establishment - old timers - people with family connections etc. have more or less come unanimously together in support of Yu Lai Fan's CONCRETE MONSTER.
The real way through this issue is going to come more from a depth psychologist or a spiritual teacher than from an engineer.

_________________
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
----- Margaret Mead

Some of those bikes are abandoned and a lot of people leave their bikes there for weeks on end or they are weekend property owners who can't be bothered to walk to the pier or home twice on the weekend.

I don't know why some people bothered saving the unchained bikes, to my mind if they are not chained they are abandoned, so whats the point?

If people only parked their bikes there when in town we probably wouldn't need a cycle park.

Personally I have no sympathy for the idiots that had their bikes destroyed.

Deviant is clearly trolling this forum. No one in their right mind could have such hatred for self-powered commuters. I suggest we politely ignore him.

It seems like deviant's strong opinion is shared by quite a few other residents I've talked to. They're entitled to their own opinions and share them in this forum, like everyone else.

As a moderate moderator, I'd love to hear from them as well, please? Anonymously, of course, to avoid recriminations from their passionate biking friends, especially those who've lost pretty new and expensive bikes this time with the unheard-of 48-hours-only notification period.

Especially pedestrians, non-bikers, coming off the rush hour ferry who've tripped over carelessly double-parked bikes seem to advocate even harsher cleanup measures and would welcome getting the bikes out of their way completely. Just saying.

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A few of the bikes.
Look at the photos, that isn't true in general.

No one would complain if they targeted abandoned bikes.
Any idiot can tell if a bike is abandoned. (Well, perhaps not every idiot.)

All they would need to do to keep it in order is have someone walk the pier once a month and sticker notices on the junk bikes, and note their position (as the photo list they used for this sweep). Next month remove any that are still there while doing a new survey.

No drama, no brand new bikes sent to the landfill.



Most of the ones I saved weren't unchained, they were locked (the wheels to the frame mostly) but could be carried.

It's the good bikes that were securely locked to the railings, out of anyone's way, that were destroyed.
I didn't bother with the junk, flat tyres, rusted solid chain.

We need LEGAL PARKING on the pier and some clear rules to keep them in order.

We need BICYCLE RACKS ON THE PIER.
As I said a dozen times before.
As Green Lantau said,
As The Hong Kong Cycling Alliance said.

Of the almost 400 bikes parked on the pier, it's less than 10 idiots who double park who cause all the problems. I'd stand aside if it was just those bikes being taken to the compacter.

Those are the ones who are giving Yu Lai Fan the excuse to destroy others' bikes and to piss away $18 million on her pet concrete slab.

I'm no troll, that's my opinion and I've been a keen cyclist since I was 5 years old, including using a bike as my main form of transport in London for years and last year in Paris.

There is also a considerable amount of space in the village for Parking (where I always leave my bike) unfortunately some of it illegally annexed and turned into a tip.

I don't agree that people have the right to annex bike parking for more than a day, in much the same way car parking is limited as it is a limited resource. It's pretty obvious that a lot of those bikes spend a long time on the pier - you can see it when you come off a late ferry.

Hence the need to build bike parking because of the irresponsible use of the resource.

If they do build bike parking you can almost guarantee it will fill up with disused bikes and be useless for people who cycle day to day.

If you don't want to use your bike for several days leave it at home, or have it crushed. LOL

Incidentally, that 'pair' of rather nice looking bikes have been locked their for months, I can tell from their badly rusting chains no one has used them for a long time. I suspect they may belong to someone who doesn't even live on Lamma but wanted to cycle on weekends and then didn't bother. How long should they be allowed to stay there?? Months or Years?? Maybe forever?

what a sloppy article.
The SCMP journalist didn't mention any of the counter-arguments made by Living Lamma, gave voice to Yu Lai Fan's claims.that an ambulance was hindered by bikes, when in fact there is always enough clearance for emergency vehicles on the catwalk, and in case of an emergency the ambulance would go to the helicopter pad, not the pier.
How about unloading goods at the pier ? Nobody seems to care, and yet another pier was built using exactly this argument that pedestrians and boats carrying goods should use different piers.

The article made no mention of the fact that sending bikes to a landfill that is nearing its capacity is wasteful, and goes against any logic. HK landfills shouldn't be used to dump bikes that can be claimed back by their owners, or if nobody comes forward, auctioned off or sold as scrap metal. Do they do that with cars that are illegally parked? of course not, so why should bikes be treated any different?