CycleFriday Cycling Culture Ride

For the year 2013, my goal is to help promote cycling culture. The strategy is to make a place as a model that can be emulated by other places. I was a bit lucky because the The State Assembly Member of Senggarang, Johor, YB Hj Ja'affar bin Hashim also have the same idea to promote cycling culture in his State Assembly. He has already launched on the 30th December 2012 a weekly cycling culture ride around Senggarang. There will be several different routes for the cyclists to enjoy riding around Senggarang and he planned to built bicycle lanes as well. I also have mooted the idea of having a place for camping area so that cyclists who are touring could stop by in Senggarang. The idea is to make Senggarang as a bicycle town and also a stopover destination for touring cyclists. This is in line with the government's effort of promoting cycling tourism. It could also improve the social economy of Senggarang's people.

Actually the idea of organizing bicycle culture ride came about when I was planning to organize CycleFriday Pista Ride in Batu Pahat, a long distance ride specifically for fixed gear bike, in March 2013. More on that in the coming posting. When I approached YB Ja'affar for assistance to have Dataran Penggaram Batu Pahat for the starting and finishing for the CycleFriday Pista Ride event, I was lucky to obtain 2 consecutive days approval by The Majlis Perbandaran Batu Pahat i.e on the Saturday 30th March and Sunday 31st March 2013.

So taking the opportunity of having the Saturday, 30th March to organize an event, I have decided to organize CycleFriday Cycling Culture Ride. So besides Senggarang, I have the opportunity to create awareness about embracing bicycle culture among the people in Batu Pahat town.

This ride is different from the fun ride normally organized by certain cycling groups. I forbid road bikes, mountain bikes and fixies to join this ride. Road bikes and Mountain bikes are meant for sports and recreations. Fixies has becoming more like a fashion or trend. So, they are not suitable to send the right message to the public and also to the government on bicycling as a lifestyles.We need to understand the differences between cycling as a sport and recreational and cycling as a means of transport. I also forbid wearing helmet during the ride as the bicycles they use for the ride i.e an upright riding position does not warrant for them to wear helmet for safety. Studies have also shown that mandatory law of wearing helmet for cyclists has reduced the number of people on bicycles. In fact, safety on the road when riding a bicycle is to avoid colliding with motor vehicles. You can read in lengthy about helmet issues at www.copenhagenize.com One of the articles is Helmets or Health.

What is more important is, in order to encourage more people to cycle on the road, we need to create the infrastructures that are safe for cycling. Thus, we hope that we could lobby for bicycle lanes from Batu Pahat town to Senggarang as our first step, then to Rengit, Benut and to Tanjung Piai, Pontian (The Southernmost Tip of Mainland Asia). This is actually a cycling tourism route. When people are feeling safe to cycle from Batu Pahat to Tanjung Piai, it will definitely increase the number of tourists on bicycles, thus helps in terms of cycling tourism particularly in Johor. We also hope that the government could built more camping sites for cyclists to stopover in Rengit, Benut and Pontian in line with this. It.will also help in the higher rate of occupancy for homestays and hotels. Not to forget, the people that operate food stalls along the way will also benefit.

So, come and support us for the first time ever, CycleFriday Cycling Culture Ride in Batu Pahat, Johor. The first step towards getting more people on bicycles. Just ride your ordinary bicycles and wear your daily clothes. This is not a normal fun ride, it's a ride with a clear objectives in mind.

The Social or Fun Ride

Does social ride helps you to have the confidence to take the streets?

The more you ride on the road, the more confidence you become. You will understand the challenges and dangers of commuting on the road as well as how traffic responds to cyclists. Personally, I feel that all those social rides with the marshals and police escort will not help much for you to gain the confidence when you are riding alone on the road.

Yes, I could agree on the security point on view. However, during social rides with marshals and police escort around, with all the roads closed, we tend to enjoy more on the ride rather than thinking much about learning to negotiate with traffic. Social rides for recreational purposes are not meant to educate so much about road safety. It’s  just, we wanna have fun thingy.

How about social rides without all those helps? The group rides organized by those informal groups and clubs. As far as I know, all those rides are meant for sports and recreational purposes. It focuses more on performances and burning fats rather than on road safety. Yeah, maybe it might help in a small way but personally I think we need something more formal to teach people on how to ride safe on the road. We need a classroom sessions like the one when we are getting our driving license. We need practical trainings in a simulation situation. Remember long time ago we had the Shell Road Safety Contest?

When we have social ride with all those escort, we tend to send the message to other road users, Hey...look… it's fun to ride a bike, so come and join us! NOT so much to tell them, Hey...look…we are part of traffic, so do respect us when we cycle alone...yea. The problem here is we are marketing cycling as a sport and recreation thingy. Not so much as an alternative need transportation.

Will the cyclists clad in lycra clothing really earn the respect of other road users? Actually there is no need to. Just wear your daily clothes when you cycle. To earn the respect of motorists here, when we ride alone, we need to send the message that… Hey...I ride because I choose to ride not because I don't have a choice like the migrant workers. It will take time to change that kind of perception, and the way to do that is by
marketing bicycle as an alternative need transportation.


Riding as a transport

The Bigger Picture - Cycling Culture

It's not that difficult to spot this kind of cyclists in Batu Pahat, Johor.

Will Update Soon

Sorry for the long silence. Will update soon and response to your comments. Thanks.

Roadblocks To Cycling Culture

A recent interview by New Straits Times. Thanks to Nurjehan. You can read full article here

Could we really go car-free?

Are we willing to do without our car for a day-the World Car-Free Day on 22nd September 2011? So far Malaysia has never organize her own car free day and maybe the government should put in effort towards promoting it. It is a day whereby we find other means of commuting, be it by the public transport, bicycles or a combination of both.

Photo from NST

Even though the event or campaign is focus more on congested areas, I would prefer to look at it more as a way of we moving around no matter where we are in Malaysia. Can we live car free? How actually we could get to where we need to go and ways to that without getting in a car and driving. To be totally car-free would seem to be quite impossible for most of us due to the inefficiency of the public transport system in Malaysia. Besides, taking public transport is somehow expensive and inconvenient when compared to riding a bike or maybe driving. For instance, if I were to take the bus from my hometown in Batu Pahat, Johor to Subang Jaya, the total cost would be around RM60 to and fro for a single person. Driving my car, it will cost around RM90-RM100 to and fro (excluding the car maintenance cost). So in this case, if travel more than 2 person, definitely it's better to drive than taking the public transport. Long distance travel, would actually require you to evaluate whether it's more convenient and how much does it cost between driving and taking public transport.

However, what we really need to look at and evaluate is our short distance commuting. Based on personal experience, anything below 25km (single trip), it is much more better to ride a bike than driving or taking the public transport. I have experimented it myself between driving and bicycling for all those short trips and found that bicycling is quicker and less stressful. Why don't you do you own experiment and see what is it like for you. A simple approach that I would suggest that could improve your life and your financial is to Drive Less. Start replacing all those short trips by car to riding a bike. For instance, to the grocery store, to meet a friend for a coffee, to the bank or to pay your utilities, etc. Sure, you can't replace all of those trips due to certain valid reasons, but most of it you would be able to. I can assure that you'll find it fun and freedom riding around.

You don't have to make a big change in your life to make a difference in the world. While living car-free is probably not possible for you, a Drive Less commitment is doable. Sooner you will reap the benefits for all those short trips. Even though I do support The World Car-Free Day campaign in Malaysia, I just feel that most of the campaign sometimes just for the sake of a campaign. I would prefer a program or event that would change the mindset and systems that will encourage Malaysians to cycle on a daily basis a transport.

Related readings:

1. Wikipedia A Car Free Day encourages motorists to give up their car for a day.

2. KL to go car-free for a day

3. Minister gets on his bike to lead

Biking is Better-From Taking Public Transport to Cycling to Work

How do I get started? It was sometime in 2005 when I lost my motorbike. So while waiting for the insurance claim, I started taking the public transport. At that time, in January 2006, RapidKL was about to introduce the new bus systems. The best way to save money on taking public transport is by purchasing the RapidKL Monthly Pass. For you to use the RapidKL buses and LRT for unlimited ride, you need to pay RM125 a month at that time. Now it has been increased but I don’t know how much. I don’t need to bother as I have already discovered a better and efficient alternative transport i.e. Bicycle.


Proved that I tried the public transport for 18 months or 1 ½ years. I gave up!

The biggest upset of the RapidKL bus system at that time was the feeder or local shuttle buses, that collect the passengers from the residential areas to the suburban or regional hub (Trunk Routes). So basically I need to take two buses before reaching KL from Subang Jaya. It can easily take about 1 ½ to 2 hours before I could reach my office! The feeder bus timing was really inconsistent. It can arrive at an interval of every 15 minutes up to 30 minutes. What triggered me about riding a bike was when I saw the foreign works riding their bikes. I was thinking maybe I could ride to the suburban hub and parked my bike there. But I was worried that it might get stolen. So, the solution was to ride straight to office.

Since the distance to my office from home was quite far i.e. 50km to and fro and I have not been cycling for so many years, I started to ride around my neighborhood to build my confidence and stamina. I ride 3 times a week for 30 minutes after came back from work as well as during weekends for the first 3 months. Honestly, it was quite boring after awhile riding around the neighborhood. So the subsequent 3 months, I started riding a bit further and longer but still maintained the 3 times a week routine. So it was like riding in the neighborhood during weekdays and during weekend I would ride from Subang to Shah Alam.

So after 6 months of training and riding around neighborhood as well as from Subang to Shah Alam to build my confidence going out on the streets, I started to ride to office in Kuala Lumpur. My first ride was during weekend because I need to check on the safest route as well as to time myself on how long I would get to office. I also time myself on how long to cool down. This is very critical as you need to familiarize yourself with the route as during weekend the roads are not that busy. With the heavy traffic during weekdays, you can’t actually think much of which way to go but to focus when you are on the road.

I wouldn’t have discovered that riding a bike to office was a lot more fun and faster if not because of the poor service of the feeder bus. It takes me about one hour to one hour fifteen minutes to reach my destination compare to taking public transport ( 1 ½ to 2 hours). It was considered blessing in disguise. Bicycle is a door-to-door transportation. You can ride your bike up to the front door of your office building.

You might not need 6 months of training if your distance is shorter. Maybe 3 months or less than that is sufficient. It all depends on you. The more you ride, the more you understand the challenges and dangers of commuting on the road and how actually to handle it. There are times when you will encounter rude drivers and motorcyclists, Don’t let them get you down. Just have fun and enjoy your ride.