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Some of us in Living Lamma have been talking with the Home Affairs Department about this for almost a year.
The local politicians are pushing it hard. One can't help but feel there is more concern with skimming a cut from the construction job than any regard for convenience of commuters.
We suggested they simply put actual bike racks along the pier railings, which would keep them all neat and out of the way. The only real problem is with the few near the gate end that are double parked and fall over.
As for the "3000 signatures", who knows. That was supposedly in 2007, before the plan was gazetted, so no one could have known what was being proposed. And as there are only about 5000 people in YSW, it seems pretty amazing turnout, and very damn odd that I've never met anyone who was even aware of this signature campaign until Yu Lai Fan started trumpeting it.
If any real people signed it at all, likely many were tourists.
No one who has looked at the parking area at Mui Wo pier could think it was a good idea. The one proposed here is smaller, more crowded and will be jammed with abandoned bikes in a couple of months. All for a cost of $20 million; over $50,000 for each bike space. The bike racks would cost about 1% of that. But the government is beholden to the DAB in LegCo, so this is an easy way to slip them some lai see.
That everyone who rides a bike will hate it is immaterial.
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