Taipei riverside bike path news

Highly amused by this section of Riverside. There must be carnage here on weekends.

Is that rider english? Hes on the wrong side of the road eh?

wait hes probably a blue truck driver. I got hit by a blue truck completely in my lane once upon a time. Took out the front end of the car and bent my nose just ever so slightly the bugger.

[quote=ā€œNuitā€]Highly amused by this section of Riverside. There must be carnage here on weekends.

[/quote]

No carnage. Most riders take the two straight paths on either side of this section. Kids love riding the ā€œSā€ though.

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[quote=ā€œIncubusā€][quote=ā€œNuitā€]Highly amused by this section of Riverside. There must be carnage here on weekends.

[/quote]

No carnage. Most riders take the two straight paths on either side of this section. Kids love riding the ā€œSā€ though.[/quote]

And the elderly love riding in an ā€œSā€ pattern on straight paths.

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Itā€™s just like the driving test course.

[quote=ā€œIncubusā€][quote=ā€œNuitā€]Highly amused by this section of Riverside. There must be carnage here on weekends.

[/quote]

No carnage. Most riders take the two straight paths on either side of this section. Kids love riding the ā€œSā€ though.[/quote]

Yeah, itā€™s really not as much fun as I had hoped it would be the first time I saw itā€¦

If anyone wants to know where it is to try it for themselves, itā€™s in on the Taipei (not New Taipei City) side of the river sorta in between Gongguan and the Taipower Building MRT stops.

I read somewhere that thereā€™s a dedicated bike path in Bitan that allows you to ride from one side of the river to the other. I havenā€™t ridden to Bitan in a few years. (I always have a hard time resisting crossing at the awesome Sunshine bridge near Ankeng before turning back toward the city.) I remember the suspension bridge was the only way a bike could get to the opposite bank. That and the $20 boat crossing. (Is the guy still there?) Can anyone confirm this? If so, where is this bridge/path located exactly?

Thereā€™s a new bridge a couple of kilometers downstream from the suspension bridge.

No, not that one. Thatā€™s the Sunshine bridge (Yangguang Qiao) I was talking about. I mean within Bitan proper, is there a new crossing?

No, not that one. Thatā€™s the Sunshine bridge (Yangguang Qiao) I was talking about. I mean within Bitan proper, is there a new crossing?[/quote]
No, I donā€™t think so.

Not a new crossing but you can cross seamlessly on the bridge (not the suspension bridge) as it has on-off ramps and also both sides of the rivers have paths (which they didnā€™t a couple years ago).

Thanks, MM. Thatā€™s good to know. Before, whenever I rode on the suspension bridge, I always felt frowned upon by pedestrians. Do you know if the boat guy that used to be a bit further upstream is still there? I was riding on both banks before there was any bike lanes. It was a dirt single track with technical rocky sections. Those were the days.

Other riverside bike path news is the opening of the Shezi bridge next to the Beitou incinerator. I havenā€™t been to it, but my friend tells me itā€™s got an exclusive bike lane with rideable on-off ramps, and itā€™s supposed to be a pretty cool looking bridge.

I was just about to mention the Shezi bridge. It opened probably about a month ago. I rode it about one and a half weeks ago to go to Beitou, and itā€™s pretty nice if youā€™re heading out that direction. It has bike lanes on both sides of the bridge, and nice gradual ramps. It needs some better signage, in my opinion, but as long as you know where it is and where itā€™s going, itā€™s a nice bridge.

Iā€™ve been riding to work lately, and I really wish they would make an actual bike lane on Huajiang Bridge. That one lane tile sidewalk nonsense is damn scary, especially with bike traffic going both ways (usually old people from Wanhua or Jiangzicui who canā€™t ride straight) and death-by-scooters waiting for anyone who fell off the narrow way.

Yeah itā€™s great that I can go to lovely places like Sanchong and Shezi ( :unamused: )on shiny new bridges but why canā€™t they make a decent way in and out of Banqiao?

Are there any other options close by? Iā€™m commuting Sanxia-Songjiang/Nanjing.

Speaking of which, Sanxia is another one of my riverside bike path pet peeves. The bike path to Sanxia ends abruptly about 2km from town. It seems stupid that such a family and tourist area would have absolutely zero bike access. Highway 3 between Tucheng and Sanxia is an absolute nightmare (I passed two separate wrecks on the way home the other night).

The other option, following the Dahan river and crossing from Yingge is equally terrible. A busy four lane bridge with no shoulder.

Come on, Xinbei! Get your shit together!

/rant

Instead of making the crossing on Huajiang bridge, you can cross Dahan river on Chongcui bridge right before it. Look for the spiral ramp. Much of the bike lane hangs underneath the bridge like one of those inverted roller coasters. Once youā€™re on it, make sure you make the connection to the Xinbei bridge bike path (just bear right all the way), which will drop you down another spiral ramp in the Sanchong riverside park along Danshui river. Keep riding and take the Taipei bridge bike ramp and cross over Danshui river. Taipei bridge has the same narrow tile sidewalk that you hate, but itā€™s shorter than Huajiang. You can enter the city at either the Dadaocheng flood gate at the end of Minsheng W. Rd or the flood gate at the end of Civic boulevard. Youā€™ll be going a longer distance but doing less city riding. Also, the connected bridge-riverside paths ensures continuous riding.

[quote=ā€œIncubusā€][quote=ā€œPaddyBā€]

Are there any other options close by? Iā€™m commuting Sanxia-Songjiang/Nanjing.

[/quote]
Instead of making the crossing on Huajiang bridge, you can cross Dahan river on Chongcui bridge right before it. Look for the spiral ramp. Much of the bike lane hangs underneath the bridge like one of those inverted roller coasters. Once youā€™re on it, make sure you make the connection to the Xinbei bridge bike path (just bear right all the way), which will drop you down another spiral ramp in the Sanchong riverside park along Danshui river. Keep riding and take the Taipei bridge bike ramp and cross over Danshui river. Taipei bridge has the same narrow tile sidewalk that you hate, but itā€™s shorter than Huajiang. You can enter the city at either the Dadaocheng flood gate at the end of Minsheng W. Rd or the flood gate at the end of Civic boulevard. Youā€™ll be going a longer distance but doing less city riding. Also, the connected bridge-riverside paths ensures continuous riding.[/quote]

Cool, thanks for the info. I have thought of the Chongcui bridge (I rode to Danshui that way once) but from what youā€™ve said about the extra distance and the same problem at Taipei Bridge it looks like itā€™s six of one, half a dozen of the other. Still, I might try it for fun sometime.

I wish they made a decent crossing from Taipei. Between those dangerous bridges, the lack of bike paths in Sanxia and the lack of a safe east-west way across town to Songjiang (I take Changan Rd, which seems no better or worse than Civic, Nanjing or any other nearby thoroughfares), it is a pretty dangerous commute for me. Taipei is really geared toward recreational cycling and keeping that recreational cycling on the riverbanks and out of town. Seems like they really havenā€™t put any thought or infrastructure into bike commuting at all.

Which is a shame because Taipei is very flat. Quite a few of my non-cycling friends have recently twigged that the YouBike system is extremely convenient. Hopefully this will build some momentum towards having more pleasant cycling routes within Taipei itself (although Iā€™m not exactly holding my breath).

[quote=ā€œPaddyBā€] I might try it for fun sometime.
[/quote]
And for the scenery. Itā€™s definitely a more scenic route than going on Huajiang bridge. Thereā€™s a great lookout platform on Xinbei bridge that affords a view of what I call the lake; itā€™s where Dahan and Xindian rivers converge and turn into the much wider Danshui river.

Zhonghe residents have a new entry point to the riverside bike pathā€“a brand new bike bridge. Itā€™s just a bit down stream from Huazhong bridge. You canā€™t miss it. It looks like the mast of a giant sailboat. With a lookout platform, itā€™s almost as nice as the bike bridge next to the Hakka Culture Park across the river.

Sanxia is a scapegoat ā€¦ had a DPP mayor for a long time ā€¦ no MRT, no bike paths ā€¦ dumb riverside construction projects, one for the dragonboat festival that has been canceled since about 2010.
The only thing they did was renovate the old street with shared private and public money of which the mayorā€™s wife supposedly took a cut ā€¦ but, although they are not thought about projects it looks better somehow and people use it for leisure and car parking, scooter lanes

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