Chiang Mai residents can hardly help to notice the so often newly painted Red & White painted kerbs to indicate no parking.
What may have gone unobserved are the on road markings for the safety of road users. These have largely disappeared under a film of grime and included among them are markings beginning in Loi Kroh Rd all the way to the western end of the old city showing a bike only counter lane in that one way street.
So perhaps it is little wonder that a non bike riding friend who was invited to a discussion on bike lanes came away believing they had been abolished?
Well these photos of signs and a few patches along the road after a brief rub with steel wool contradict the assertion.
However unless bicyclists get out and assert the rights we have established to ride both ways on one-way streets, (e.g. maintaining painted lanes while the municipal authorties fail their duty ) these rights will be lost and cycling will be more dangerous and unattractive.
From David H. :
Hi Ricky.
“The rights we have asserted to ride both ways on one way streets”?
I hope you mean ONLY on the one-way streets where a contra-flow bike lane is marked, albeit not very clearly? Loi Kroh is a good example.
Thapae Road used to be contra but the narrow lane on the right (as we go westwards) is now clearly indicated in the direction of the traffic flow.
Cyclists riding the ‘wrong’ way on road where no-one else expects them to do so are an acute danger to themselves – and everyone else. The danger comes not necessarily from oncoming traffic (they SHOULD be easily seen) but from traffic entering the main road from a side street, drivers looking only in the direction from which they expect vehicles to come. Rachamankha Rd (where I have picked up cyclists knocked down by vehicles emerging from small sois) is a good example.
As for the idiots who deliberately ride on the wrong side of any road – well – I won’t be attending their funerals.
If you have rights within the law to do any of the above (and any official sympathy if injured) I will happily swallow my words.
Nothing personal,
David
David makes some observations cyclists and others on the road, and government officials, would be wise to take note of. However in my opinion as a daily urban cyclist it is often safer to cycle contrary to the posted traffic direction signs. This is particularly the case when crossing the roads around the city moat and certainly less hair raising than trying to change lanes on a slow bike with cars speeding along. As for the wrong side of the road travel, that is precisely what the non contra flow bike lane in Thapae Rd promotes. The right side for a slow vehicle is the far left lane to allow faster travellers to pass on the right. The lane markings David refers to are in all liklihood painted by mistake.