We actually had a HK-born bicycle parking expert, who has a company that does it in London, and got him to a meeting with Home Affairs and tried to discuss the design. They were totally uninterested.

The plan was sketched out by YLF 10 years ago on a beer mat and she then used it to get a bucket of money from District Council.
There is no examination of the need and utility of any project, the only question is: "Whose turn is it?"

Home Affairs then designed it thick enough to use up the maximum $20 million budget for "Rural Minor Works" and so we see the result. A platform built to support a skyscraper. Not 300 bikes weighing 10 kg each.


Each of those hoops cost $100,000 to put there.

HK government is completely hostile to bicycles as transport. They are treated as toys and obstructions. Facilities where they exist at all (none in the urban areas) are built either as a boondoggle, like our own monument, or to justify the government's confiscation and destruction of bikes parked elsewhere, without regard that the official parking is often completely full, and/or in out of the way places inconvenient to get to.

Someone told me they are planning on banning cycling through the village like over in Sok Ku Wan. (They have signs up at either end of the main street instructing cyclists to dismount and push their bikes). Anyone heard about this? Im all for it. Nothing more annoying than people dinging their bells repeatedly down main street as if they have some sort of priority.

Who is "they" and who is going to enforce it?
It's legally a road. They aren't going to stop the VVs; how can they rationally ban bikes?
(Not that rationality has much to do with how things are decided here.)

The dickheads (and 5 year olds) will keep dinging no matter what signs you put up anyway.

This has been in force for several years on the Sok Kwu Wan restaurant strip.
But I've never been stopped or fined when riding (slowly and carefully) through the village. Just another unenforced regulation...

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Opening soon?
(Photo courtesy of Christine Ho)

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

The true Lamma spirit from a local resident:
"I officially declare the Lamma bike park...Open."

We wonder how long it'll take for this lone bike to get confiscated...
There's no (legal) way of ever getting a bike back after confiscation, in our experiences. So he's a real rebel, damn the consequences! ;~}}

I've just asked a local District Council assistant about the opening and she had no idea. All I got was the enquiry number of the Home Affairs Dept: 2835 2500 who *might* know. Calling them next week...

Movie premiere of Night Boat Story, set on Lamma and feat. the YSW Ferry Pier on the film poster, tonight at 9pm in Museum of Science. Soon it'll be a historic movie, if they ever start enforcing a "No more bikes on the ferry pier!" policy.
But this policy hasn't worked on other island as nobody has enforced it regularly. So you'll be safe to ignore the Bike Park till further notice, or be a true Lamma Rebel and use it! ;~}

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

the bikes on the pier aren't "parked", they are "illegally occupying government land", so they are subject to arbitrary confiscation. The CPA however is actually a designated bike park. So bikes (and any other trolleys, filing cabinets, etc that people lock to the hoops) there will just accumulate forever, no matter they are rusted to scrap; see any bike park at a KCR station. Then when all the places are full of junk and you have to park elsewhere, the government steals it.

Their management of bicycles is either ignore or destroy.

Anyway, if you do have a bike on the pier now, don't leave it more than a day. Pretty likely that there will be another bike massacre at short notice when the CPA is opened. Hopefully they will be stored up by the reservoir as before if you want to reclaim them.

A fine, long-distance shot of the current (and probably future) bike parking, shot from up the hill in front of the Powerstation, by (no longer Anonymous) Guy.

As there'll probably be almost no or only rare enforcement of the Bike Park, same as on the other Outlying Islands, people will continue to use the ferry pier as it's more convenient and closer.

The authorities might have to give you a week's warning with a notice stuck to your "illegally parked cycle" before they confiscate and either destroy it on the same day or lock it up forever. Usually enough time to save it, if you're still using the vehicle regularly.

If not, put it inside the Bike (Storage) Park and it can be stored there almost forever till it dissolves into rust.

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

By the way, NOBODY seems to know about any opening date of the Bike Park, neither our District Council, our local Police and also not the Home Affairs Dept. they both referred me to. Announcement pending.

It might take a few months, as CEDD and other departments are checking if it's safe to park there. It might possibly fall down as it has only been load-tested for several hundred TONS!

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Look at the photo: the pier, which has supported fully loaded VVs, and full ferry loads (300 people) swarming up and down for the last 40 or 50 years, is about 1/4 or 1/5 the thickness of the platform, and much older. Obviously we're in dire danger of the pier collapsing if more than a dozen people walk on it at once!

But it has to be SAFE SAFE SAFE !!!

Also, it has to be strong enough to support the future multi-storey bike park when they find out it's too small for all the existing and especially all the long-term-parked, rusting-away vehicles that will slowly fill it up over the coming months and years after the opening, if that ever happens... It's much safer for the authorities to keep it closed off for an indefinite time...

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Following up on the opening date of the Bike Park...

According to local insiders I spoke with, Lands, Home Affairs and Food & Environmental Hygiene Dept. have not agreed yet on who'll take final responsibility for the Bike Park, so it cannot be opened for now.
The familiar passing-the-buck between Govt. depts. is continuing and it could take a long time for this to be settled. There's not even a provisional opening date, none of the local politicians and Govt. depts. seem to have any idea so far.

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

On Monday a worker was touching up the paving by the pier. Looked like the final touches to me. Anyway, the barriers will get removed, unofficially, soon, and it will be used, unofficially, at least for access to the library and fishermen's village.

YLF said at a meeting two years ago that the Transport Department would administer it when we asked who was going to enforce rules, remove abandoned bikes, etc.
I was pretty sure she had just made that up and this confirms it.
Why would anyone think FEHD had any responsibility anyway?
I guess someone has to sweep the leaves off it every now and then.

YLF has been scheming to build this for 10 years, as she keeps telling us. What happens next, she doesn't care, never considered.
Home Affairs spent months and millions on hydrographic surveys, design of the massively over-specified platform. Never gave a moment's thought on how, or if, it would ever be used.
The money to pour the concrete has been pocketed. That was the only reason it was built.
No budget for upkeep or admin. Just build it and let it rust and rot and then a few years later get another 20-30 million to replace it.
Like "YSW Plaza". Build it and lock it up. Or the "Fish Market"; build it and the vendors have to set up outside it, since the enormous pillars make the space under the roof unusable.

Now she'll be concentrating on the next stage of reclamation. Concreting YSW bay, one step at a time.

We've got it now, it's here and won't go away any time soon, no complaining will change that.
Let's focus on making the very best use of it. Opening it to the public would be a first step...

By the way, the Library is scheduled to be start tear-down and complete rebuild later this year as a 3-floor, $50 million glass monument. It's already approved and the artist impressions have been published in this forum.
Expect a few more years of inconvenience, far outstripping and surpassing the Bike Park construction.

It might not be suitable yet to return to Yung Shue Wan for Lamma-Por and myself. We'll be watching all the construction from across the hills, while another new village house has just started construction just outside my home office window... Much of Lamma is a-changing...

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Makes no difference what we focus on.
No suggestions or criticisms I make will have any effect.
My comments are only for my own amusement.
I gave up trying to change anything here.

Besides Alan's own amusement, I think it's worth to keep complaining about such stupid projects YLF & Co Ltd blow taxpayer's money on. The more who do so the better, even though our officials are beyond any embarrassment. I am sure YLF & Co. will put the same effort into making the very best use of the bike park as they did Yung Shue Wan Plaza. It looks like 3rd world refugee holding camp(except it's always empty).

I agree with you, but there are future projects to worry about and concentrate your energy on, even though the completely under-used YSW Plaza still irks me, such a wonderful opportunity for a community facility wasted.

Next project: $50 million Library rebuild, scheduled to start at end of this year, a much bigger, longer-lasting and more ambitious construction than the neighbouring Bike Park. Maybe a good thing, maybe not?

And the full harbour reclamation is still in planning and might happen someday sooner or later, even after being stopped and postponed at least twice in the last 10+ years.

Plus a few other upcoming-very soon or in progress already big construction projects, like adding an entire new village right off Power Station beach and building Lamma's biggest hostel in Sok Kwu Wan...

Plus the biggest development project in Lamma's history, doubling the population by building a complete new town in the ex-Lamma Quarry, a project that will keep local developers happy for decades. Very likely to happen, I think...

Better to get better informed on those than complaining about finished projects like the Bike Park, IMHO.

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

It's not "either/or". Seeing how past projects have fared tells us what to pay attention to in future ones.

Anyway, the CPA isn't really "finished" until it's actually being used. The problem is that YLF and the District Office consider it finished once the cheques have cleared. Then they forget it.

How previous projects have been implemented is a good predictor of how future projects will proceed.
When every project is at best a useless white elephant, at worst a destructive blot on the landscape, we know that giving YLF a pass on all the projects she bulldozes through won't encourage her to be more thoughtful. It will just tell her that she can get away with anything.

A few dozen more new comments about the Bike Park from Lammaites:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155788008685578&set=a.10150253342830578.477589.656185577&type=1&permPage=1

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

What is the so-called Bike Park REALLY for?
A few great ideas from Lammaites, besides the obvious hurdling challenge. Somebody tried it the other day and ended up in hospital, via helicopter:

"The park is for BMX tricks.
Bike park? You fools, it's a limbo challenge!
For VIP & Power station workers.
I saw one of the gorgeous old village elders doing his exercise there using the bars.
It's also for storing dragon boats on during Typhoon."

Any more good or bad ideas?

Ciaran the Clown is also collecting ideas:

"Extreme limbo course.
Hectic hurdle race.
Large staple holder.
Worst. Playground. Ever.
Waste of money. People will still chain their bikes all along the Pier.
Bunker strong enough to survive the end of the world.
Can't fail penalty shoot out.
Secret vertical large filing cabinet.
Giant toast rack.
Public clothes rack?
Mass carry on luggage check.
I vote ice cream.
Croquet death race.
A really unimaginative maze.
Motorbike training park?
Cattle stalls without cattle...
HK's new parkour headquarters
Selfie segregator and fashion walk."

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.