Stories tagged with bicycling
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Chiang Mai Views Bicycling with Disdain
In Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second-largest city, bicycling is at your own risk, even though this form of transport provides clear advantages for a rider’s physical health and for the environment.
Next to getting around by foot, the bicycle is seen by Thais in Chiang Mai as the least desirable mode of transportation.
The city’s streets are teeming with cars and trucks, as motorcycles screech and zig-zag through the stalled traffic.
Other than the attitude of the locals about bicycles, it is the unpredictable movement of motorcycles that poses the greatest danger to bicyclists. Cyclists are forced to the edge of the road where they can be forced into the curb or parked vehicles. The lack of bicycle paths on most roads makes the situation even worse.
In addition to the more practical life and death considerations for cyclists, this particular mode of transport is viewed in Chiang Mai, as it in the cities of many developing countries, with disdain as it is seen as reflecting a low economic status.
Many local people avoid using bicycles as a means of transport because of these social attitudes that consider any form of human powered transportation as demeaning. This includes walking as well as bicycling.
Bicycling remains an activity reserved for tourists in Chiang Mai, or occasionally as a weekend pastime for locals.
The attitude is unfortunate, as bicycling can improve a rider’s physical health, reduce energy consumption and can play a positive role in improving the air quality in these highly polluted urban areas.
Posted by: Andrew on 17 Jun 2008, 00:00