Why I stopped cycling to School
Tags: Roads, Singapore, Cycling, Commute, Parks

Being a public transport enthusiast for more than 6 years, I wanted to find out what it is like to be a regular commuter who just wants to get from point A to point B. Having dealt with the stereotypes that came with liking public transport, I thought that cycling would be a breather to all that. Unlike my connection with buses and trains, I wasn’t a cycling enthusiast, nor someone who would search the web for the latest innovations in the bicycle industry. Cycling cuts my commute time, lifts my mood, and if I were to integrate exercise into my commute, I could save 152 hours a year!

It’s a win-win situation!

Since then, I’ve cycled at least once a week to and from school on my trusty aluminium foldie bicycle. Cycling to school was great! — It made me more refreshed and energetic without caffeine. I was able to focus in class better and study sessions became more productive. However, just 6 months later, I found myself more unwilling than ever to ride my bicycle to school. I returned to my old habit of taking public transport, squeezing with fellow commuters, and feeling less energetic arriving at school.

Here’s why:

The stereotypes of riding a bicycle

After people realised that I switched to cycling as a mode of transport, the way I got to school was swiftly questioned by others.

“Why you ride bike sial? You know cycling very dangerous anot? Later you die how?”

Cycling is generally perceived as a leisure activity to be done at East Coast Park, or by lycra donned professionals who could glide at high speeds with ease. Commuting by bicycle is widely unheard of, with an estimated 1% of the population doing so. Unlike taking public transport (PT) where people fond of PT are called bus or train enthusiasts, and everyone else is a commuter, getting on a bicycle regardless of motive labels me as a cyclist.

This is defined as “a person who rides a bicycle” in the Oxford dictionary, but in reality, the term comes with many connotations and stereotypes.

I was somehow expected to don lycra cladding with the most aerodynamic bicycle in town, advocating cycling every now and then. Of course, it’s perfectly cool to be either one of those, but I’m not one myself. Cycling was just my mode of transport.

There are many ways I could go to school on my bicycle — by footpath, shared path, park connector, and road. Even though travelling all of those paths are legal, many people have differing opinions on where I should cycle.

Things I’ve been yelled at when cycling in Singapore. Thankfully, I haven’t experienced the third one.

To me, footpaths were never built to accommodate bicycles in the first place, and on narrow footways such as those in Geylang, it is impossible to cycle on them without endangering others’ safety. Park connectors were designed for leisure purposes and take circuitous routes which makes my commute 1.5h longer. Hence, for commuting, I chose the fastest route — by road, and on days when I wanted to relax, by PCN.

There’s nothing wrong having a different preference of route, but being constantly told that the route I took was “wrong” regardless of path can be quite irritating. Examples include this Today opinion article recommending cyclists to make detours over 30 minutes to avoid Nicoll Highway to avoid delaying motorists when overtaking one takes no more than 30 seconds.

As someone who is currently learning driving, even the negative stereotypes of a cyclist appear in driving theory questions!

Isn’t the obvious reason for safety?

The real reason why people on bicycles need to swerve is due to road obstacles such as potholes and manhole covers, which may burst their tyres. No one in the right mind would sway for no reason.

Hence, it is no surprise that such stereotypes in education lead to people thinking binarily — that cyclists are an inconvenience and annoyance to others regardless of circumstance.

In recent times, the local media been adding oil to the fire by reporting excessively on traffic violations that cyclists commit. In 2019, someone loses a life on Singapore’s roads almost every other day, many of which go unreported on the local media. But when a cyclist killed a pedestrian, a quick Google search will reveal that the media had all eyes on that incident. It does not help that most newspaper publishers work under the same umbrella of SPH.

Given the popularity of such articles on the media, it is not uncommon for people to send me articles of cyclists getting injured or flouting traffic rules for my “safety”. Most of them tell me not to be like “one of those guys”. I somehow was answerable for someone else’s actions, and over the course of 6 months, it had been increasingly tiring to explain to people about incidents which I’m not involved in.

“Did you know that this cyclist beat a red light? or that cyclist who was out of the cycle lane along Tanah Merah Coast Road? and then there’s that cyclist on the expressway!”

When such incidents happen, they are often reposted onto social media. Due to the fact that bicycle cameras are often way more expensive than those for cars, many cyclists do not ride with cameras, and thus the proportion of traffic violation videos circulating the net is skewed. Comments in these posts often display hate and toxicity, as well as lack of understanding.

When a driver makes a mistake, it is often treated as an individual’s error. When a pedestrian jaywalks across the road, it is treated as that person’s fault. But somehow when a cyclist does it, it brings a bad name upon everyone who cycles.

I don’t quite understand that.

Wishing death to other people who cycle seems to gradually become societally accepted, having noticed an increasing number of people using actual profiles to make such public comments on social media.

These comments on social media are dehumanizing and become dangerous when they translate to actions. Because of these stereotypes, some people believe that it is justifiable to intentionally cause distress and harm to other people simply because they are on a bicycle.

These incidences may seem normal or laughable when viewed from a screen, but they are life-threatening and horrifying to face in real life.

Even on multi-use shared paths, the stereotypes remain. In November 2020, a 12-year-old cyclist got kicked and punched in the face by a man who claimed that cycling is not permitted on such paths.

I’m disgusted.

Personally, I have faced such incidents twice in 6 months. The first being an intentional close pass followed by an emergency brake in front of me while I was getting to school, and the second being a taxi driver who attempted to roll me over whilst shouting threats at a traffic light when I was on my way home with food for my family. Out of my safety, for both incidents, I had to pull over to calm myself down before my adrenaline rush spiralled out of control. Those were two incidents of misdirected anger, two times where I could have lost my life.

I’m tired of hearing yet another story of a cyclist making a minor traffic violation, or being implicitly classified into a group of cyclists. I just want to get from point A to point B, just like the majority of individuals in a car, bus, or MRT.

Feeling exhausted, after 6 months of through and from school by bicycle, I switched back to public transport as a form of commute. In school, I felt more lethargic and found it harder to concentrate, but compared to riding a bicycle, I’m free to take whichever route brings me to my destination, and I’m free to travel anytime. No one screams at me, questions my choice, wishes death upon me, or tries to run me over.

The day I stopped cycling to school, I felt liberated, I felt free.

I’m finally being treated like a normal human being.