It is commonly seen that individuals prefer not to ride bicycles these days. It is because riding bikes is the most dangerous means of transportation generally. To advocate riding bikes, the government should spend more budget on building more bikeways.
First of all, so far, the environment for the bikers is not friendly enough. For bikers, they must either go on the sideways or on the main roads. If they choose to stay with the pedestrians, they can easily hurt the walking citizens due to the extreme speed difference. Nevertheless, if they ride on the main roads, although it reduces the possibility of crashing into strangers, bikers can easily run into car accidents and even get severely injured. For example, there are more than 500 bike accidents happening in Taipei annually and 150 of the victims died in the accidents. As a result, considering personal safety, people tend to choose other means such as the subway or bus.
Thus, this essay believes the best solution is to build more bikeways. Specifically, bikers need not go with anybody other than bikers. Then, considering the similar speed and the extra space, individuals can feel more secure while using such vehicles. For instance, in Hsinchu, 17km coastline bikeway, one of the most popular bikeways in Taiwan, attracts more than 50000 visitors weekly. However, outside that area, it is extremely rare to see anybody riding bicycle in Hsinchu. Hence, it is not the vehicle itself that people dislike, but the safety issues brought by using the vehicles.
In conclusion, individuals seldom ride bikes due to safety problems. After all, riding with cars and trucks can put bikers into grave danger and riding with pedestrians can easily harm the pedestrians. Yet, this essay insists that if the government launches a project to build lots of bikeways in its town or city, people would be more willing to ride bicycles.