Taipei riverside bike path news

Guilty as charged. But I never bounced on the pontoons. I agree people should dismount and walk their bikes when going over the ramps, but once they’re on the floating path, riding should be allowed. Why did they build a “bike” path then?

Have fought off various scooters on the bike paths over the years, but this one was a first …

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A good part of the reason riding is not allowed is the safety of pedestrians. The other part being that the pontoons were not designed for it, as is now evident.

There are some real nutters on the riverside paths who seem to think they’re in a time trial and some real prize idiots who seem unable to cycle in a straight line.

Given that pedestrians have priority, not that you’d notice, I wish they’d rename the paths to be “Riverside paths” rather than “Bike Paths” as that seems to give cyclists the idea that pedestrians are not allowed and therefore should get out of cyclist’s way. I’m lucky enough to live very close to a riverside path and enjoy both cycling and walking on it, except for the weekends when they’re best left to the idiots.

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You can report any vehicle with a license plate using the police traffic website or app, they will issue fines for being on the riverside paths. Have reported quite a few scooters over the years, wouldn’t be so bad if they rode at cycling pace or less, but full speed on the paths is ridiculous.

Is that car parked? There’s a baseball grounds on the riverside near Gongguan where the coach and players all drive down the riverside paths to get their gear to it, completely crazy on a Saturday with bikes swerving to avoid them.

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No there is a driver. The face has been blurred, but you can see the hands on the steering wheel.

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That’s a first. Especially on that part of the riverside paths.

Turn this picture in to the police. There is no valid reason for this ass clown to be driving his car on the Kuandu biking/walking path!

Publicly shame! Send to Apple Daily!

Unblur the face and the license plate! Name and shame!

Don’t just think bike paths have one purpose or are exclusive. There can be multiple authorizes purposes.

It’s quite common for some drivers to be authorized for use of other vehicles. I have friends whose house is located on a bike path and the only way to drive to their house to the driveway is via the bike path.

They can drive along that bike path to their house but I cannot do that unless I have a purpose to go to their house. And if I can convince any police on the way that might stop me and question me.

And of course there are the stupid drivers.

I think it’s actually quite rare.

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I often see blue trucks on the bike paths near Dajia Riverside Park. They are driving relatively slow and usually have a yellow light on top of them. I assume they are gardeners or cleaners of the porta-potties.

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Service and maintenance vehicles certainly use the paths, along with the “security” guys on (usually) electric scooters. What I believe is rare is private vehicles being authorized to use the cycle paths.

Now that I think about it, the stretch between Zhu Wei and Hong Shu Lin has a lot of private vehicle usage.

The big intersection by the station goes straight under the MRT tracks and into the bike path. I remember when I used to bike commute I would sometimes run into cars closer to Zhu Wei because there’s housing right behind the station as well as a bit north too.

Authorized, legal usage?

There’s a sign saying that it’s not a bike path going forward. So, I guess it is legal.

How I see it is, some of those houses were already there when those tracks were train tracks, not MRT. So, probably before the bike path existed.

Oh, OK, guess it’s just a road then rather than a bike path so no restrictions on vehicle usage.

Rare or common… Common or rare…

Using a bike path for multiple purposes is something that is done in Taiwan.

Really hard to tell if a specific spot is authorized or not.

I bet I can find a hundred km of bike paths with multiple authorized vehicle usages within 60 minutes by car from Taipei 101.

There are lots of places where a bike path is designated but then you find houses located along the bike path.

It’s just part of the game as Taiwan tries to make more and more small roads into bike paths that have been there for a long time and have house and other things already.

Instead of looking from the negative, look from the positive and that we’re lucky they turned it into a bike path to limit vehicle traffic but still have it available for those that need it and include bikes.

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Actually, if you look on Google maps, that section of the bike path turns into road right at Zhu Wei and then about 500m from Hong Shu Lin, it turns back into a bike path.

Maybe this is what @tango42 is saying?

Copy that, and we indeed can only appreciate the efforts the various local governments have put into creating the network as it is, pretty unique in the world.

That said, the stretch above is a bike-only track, built on top of the water barrier, and without any houses / businesses or whatever (they are served by a general small parallel road on the inside of the water barrier.

Everyone familiar with the situation knows it is not even half logical to turn from the road (just one connection each end) onto the bike path, and certainly not something you do unnoticed.

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I have no feelings to blame and shame … when they were part of my daily life, I decided to leave the country I was in causing those … life is too short to be frustrated :).

In this case, he was a she…
After the usual driver anger turning into driver apology turning into driver begging to pass, she realized the only way out was to reverse the whole way back …
Considering how ‘good’ she was in that, I guess that was more than punishment enough :joy:

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Yeah, I strongly suspect in this case the driver just made a mistake and wasn’t deliberately breaking the law. If I recall correctly, the signage at one end of that path isn’t all that clear - a road just ends at a T-junction with the cycling path.