I always thought the blue blobs were water balloon targets for people living in the highrises nearby.
Fair point.
I’m thinking the best solution may be to push vehicles of all sorts into the same space or have entirely dedicated streets for cycles. I don’t ride in the city anymore but when I did (regular commute for a few years) I rode with traffic simply because bike lanes and sidewalks were so damn dangerous. In the road you, generally, had traffic coming from a single direction.
i ride on the road too ususally, i find there is space on the side of the road making it not that difficult to ride. the problems are the parked cars, buses and other nonsense getting in the way but theres less crap than the pavement.
It is done, well, the first couple of kilometers that is. You can now ride upstream from Bitan to the first tributary and continue on the opposite bank for a little bit. What’s unique about this new path is that there’s a section that’s floating on pontoons, which spares you the climb and the heavy traffic on the main road. As for a riverside bike path that goes all the way to Wulai, let’s just say it’s not going to materialize anytime soon, but it’s a start anyway.
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Signs at the Bitan side entrance indicate cyclists should dismount and walk their bikes, not clear if that only applies to the ramp at entry or the entire floating path.
It looks like it will be an expensive folly anyway, as it appears it will be removed every time there is the threat of a typhoon. It’s also only open from 6am to 10pm.
Deconstruction underway this afternoon
So does the pontoon usually have guardrails, and those have already been dismantled?
The riverside paths are full of signs telling people to dismount for ramps or whatever, but they’re usually ignored (sensibly ignored, I feel). But looking at this photo, dismounting for the pontoon bridge seems like a pretty good idea.
Yes, they’ve already been dismantled, they’re mostly rope anyway.
Have to disagree there. Being unfortunate enough to have to use one of the access ramps to/from the riverside path and a pedestrian bridge everyday I fully support adding some obstacle that make it impossible to not dismount and walk a bicycle.
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Hmm, guess it depends on where, and the crowds. There are ramps I ride on for a weekday morning that I’d dismount for when there’s a bit of a crowd - but in most cases I ignore the signs. Always, of course, depending on circumstances. For example, aren’t you supposed to walk all the way across the Dazhi Bridge? That’d be annoying - although certainly I get off for the blind corner on-off access at the south end.
Rope guardrails on a pontoon bridge with right angles, that, I’d probably dismount for.
This is what it looks like with the rope railings up.
And yes, that guy standing there makes sure that you dismount and walk your bike in the entire floating section, which is about 100 meters.
Wow, that water has really turned brown in the space of a few days.
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I went for a riverside ride this afternoon, Tamsui, Xishawei Island, Dadaocheng, and back on the other side of the river.
One could see that some parts were flooded due to the typhoon last night, but there were large work forces (both in Taipei and New Taipei) out there to clean up of whatever the river left on the shores.
Big kuddos to Taiwan (again), most other places that stuff should be there for weeks or months.
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Good to know - the weather looks like it’ll be good for a ride tomorrow, but I figured the paths would still be strewn with debris. I guess I don’t have that excuse after all.
No excuse indeed.
It will be perfect, as the wind will have died by then.
Although flat, I had a blast of a ride today.
Get out there while this weather lasts!
I assume we’ll have a full weeks worth of rain soon and then…winter.
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As of noon today, the path was still missing, and the typhoon had left several days ago. 
LOL at this.
its going to get freezing cold again.
oh man, I miss Game of Thrones.
You can now ride up Keelung River all the way into Keelung now. The riverside bike path in Xizhi has been extended into Keelung via an old train tunnel that’s been converted to a bike/pedestrian tunnel. On the floor inside the tunnel, they’ve marked the exact spot where you cross the New Taipei/Keelung city limit. Too bad the path ends at the Keelung end of the tunnel, but this extension is already a big step up.
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I recently rode along Keelung River past the tunnel to Baifu Station 百福車站. Beautiful ride.
To bad Google maps bike paths are only partially labeled.
嶺腳
206, Keelung City, Qidu District, 基隆市七堵區
So did you ride on the road to Baifu Station or is there another bike path further up the river? I came out from the tunnel and saw that there was no more bike path so I decided to turn back. The roundtrip from Taipei to the tunnel and back was about 40k.
Cross the next intersection and there is a closed road that goes maybe 1-2km along the river up to near Baifu. I made it to that very visible LOHAS pool building. Can also see that one from highway. Did not see bike path after that but there may be one.
I had ~30km round trip from Raohe.
Young Lohas Club
No. 259號, Shijian Road, Qidu District, Keelung City
https://maps.app.goo.gl/7musJMb9ify6xDas6