Bangkok, a cycling city?
People like to follow a craze, don’t they?
After the Bike for Mom event to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s birthday on the 16th of August, there has been a new obsession in Bangkok; a cycling city. Indeed, cycling is perfect for your body. It burns body fat, raises metabolic rate and reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, it conserves the environment as there’s no pollution produced when cycling. A large amount of money is also saved as bicycles do not need petrol to function. These facts seem to be very convincing, don’t they? But wait! Bangkok as a cycling city? Stop dreaming! There’s no problem with just riding for fun in Bangkok parks, but if you’re going to get serious and ride to work on the
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In Australia, a car driving on a bicycle lane or tailgating a bicycle will be fined up to 900 Australian Dollars. Through these few years, the news about bicycle accidents and their death tolls have been drastically increasing. In February 2013, Peter Root and Mary Thompson, a British couple that were cross-continental cyclers tragically lost their lives in a road accident in the eastern of Thailand. Not so long ago, on the 21st February 2015, Juan Francisco Guillermo, another round-the-world cyclist was savagely smashed by a pick-up truck and immediately killed in the north-east of Thailand. Even for experienced cyclers, the blood-stained roads in Thailand have been proved to be deadly. Needless to say more, if you are lucky enough to survive the uneven terrain roads and irresponsible vehicle drivers, who knows you might be attacked by ruthless and reckless racketeers who are aiming to deprive you of your money, belongings, bike, and even your dear life. One of the cases is that on the 2nd August 2015, an unfortunate cyclist, Thitiwat Rongthong was assaulted by 2 teenage racketeers with a 50cm sword and miraculously survived because of a