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Published on September 20, 2007

Millions of Bangkok people seem unable to live life without a car - not even on Car-Free Day, an annual international condemnation of car-exhaust pollution that's returning this Saturday.

There have been several noble efforts to reduce the number of cars in the city and encourage people to use the bus or the subway instead, but they never get anywhere.

"It's not possible to live in Bangkok without a car," exclaims Sirisa Tuntikowit, a sales manager for Lufthansa Airlines who works in the Asoke area. She usually makes her rounds loaded down with heavy files and needs her own transportation.

"The campaign to stop people driving won't work," Sirisa insists.

Her home is on Soi Watcharaphol in the Ram-Indra area, and Sirisa has for the past seven years been travelling at least 50 kilometres a day to get to and from work and do her job. Some days she can use public transit if her business calls all happen to be within the subway and Skytrain routes, but those are all downtown - and a long way from home.

Bicycles, of course, are out of the question for her, and a challenge for most other people.

"It takes imagination to travel by bike in Bangkok," says Verapoom Tessiri of the Thai Cycling Association, a graphic designer who works at home. Still, he thinks more people should be riding or toting around folding bikes like his - it's healthy and it slows down that global warming.

That's why he's in charge of this year's Car-Free Day.

Manit Sincharoen has imagination. About a year ago Manit decided he'd start waking up early so he could pedal from his apartment in Thungkru to Thanachart Bank at the Mah Boon Khrong mall, where he works as a driver.

"Bicycle or motorcycle - it makes no difference," says Manit, though he opts for an ordinary second-hand bicycle he picked up for Bt200. He gets to work easily along the streets and sometimes on footpaths and pedestrian bridges while car owners sit stuck at red lights.

Verapoom set a personal record last year: He made it to 10 different far-flung destinations in 15 hours. You can't do that with a car, he says.

Leaving his house in the Lad Phrao area at 9am, he started with client meetings in the neighbourhood, then chatted with friends in Patumwan, bought a few things in Worachak and then met some fellow bikers at the Rama VIII Bridge.

He returned home at midnight with the gang from Chinatown via Rama IX Road. The Skytrain and subway had helped a little bit.

But he's right about needing imagination. Bangkok wasn't built for bicycles, and the drivers of cars and buses regard them as pests to be exterminated - if they see them at all. Nor are pedestrians at all pleased to share the footpath.

But Verapoom is undeterred. He's linked the Thai Cycling Association and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to other clubs and private sponsors in a bid to have 1,221 cyclists come to the National Stadium this Saturday.

They'll assemble on the field with their two-wheelers and form a carefully calculated map of Thailand, an attention-grabber designed to let people know just how many bikers there are in Bangkok.

Verapoom wants to change people's attitudes about cycling. It's a message that will be further conveyed by thousands of triangular yellow stickers urging folks to be more considerate toward and careful around bikers. The stickers will be showing up, ironically enough, on the windows of cars and buses.

He acknowledges that cyclists have been too worried about carving out their own territory on city streets. They've sought better infrastructure, such as bike lanes, mostly in vain, and pushed for a public-transportation network for commuters.

"If you're waiting for a perfect city, you'll wait forever," Veerapoom says.

Bangkok's newer roads like Praditmanutham and Rama V have bike lanes marked out with yellow lines on the sidewalks. The yellow lines also appear on some segments of other arteries, like Rajdamri Road.

But most of the older streets in town are too narrow and crowded, and drains and the general unevenness of the surfaces make things even riskier.

Manit once ploughed into a taxi when the passenger didn't see him coming and opened the door directly in his path. That sort of mishap made him wonder whether pedalling to the office every day was really a good idea.

"The cyclists should all buy motorbikes," suggests Sirisa, worried about their safety. "I don't find them a nuisance, but between accidents and the pollution, they are risking their lives, ."

Trading in her car for a bike simply isn't possible for people like Sirisa, whose job requires four wheels. And Verapoom isn't about to suggest they be forced.

"Just go home and do something else for the world, like growing a plant or using up less nature," he says.

Manit is saving money he'd otherwise spend on petrol and his health improves daily, but if two wheels is two wheels too few, car owners might consider using fewer plastic bags, turning off unnecessary lights - and consuming less gas while driving.

It's good enough, Veerapoom says, for commuters like Sirisa to realise that there is an environmental problem and be cautious about the cyclists on the street.

He just wishes that millions of other people sitting behind the wheel were just like her.

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Yes, the bicycle is a road vehicle

A dedicated cyclist told me that city bikers need survival skills. Maybe it's true.

As an occasional biker I've sampled the busy streets from time to time, but to avoid heavy traffic I chose weekend mornings to visit spots like the Royal Plaza, the Rama VIII and Pinklao bridges and Bangkok Noi.

I've found that the biggest problem isn't infrastructure - uneven roads or absent bike lanes. It's the view that drivers take of cyclists that got me off the pedals to push my bike instead.

Apart from watching out for the holes, I had to watch out for fast-moving vehicles whose drivers obviously didn't think I had a right to be among them.

Security guards halted me to let a stream of cars out of their buildings. Car and tuk-tuk drivers refused to brake when they saw I was in the way.

I couldn't take my mountain bike on the subway because it can't be folded up. My bike and I aren't allowed on the Skytrain during peak hours.

I've learned one trick, though: Make eye contact with the person behind the wheel and plead with furrowed brows for the right of way.

Otherwise I might crash into them because my brakes aren't as good as theirs.

Sirinya Wattanasukchai, The Nation