The biker pictured above did not participate in the race, though he’d probably beat them all. (Photo: Ding Yuin Shan via Flickr)
Lawmaker Dennis Kwok, a seasoned runner, participated in a short race from the Adventist Hospital to Dominion Garden (next to Pacific Place 3) last week.
His competitors had a rather unfair advantage, seeing as how one was on a bicycle and one had a private car.
The race was a publicity stunt organised by the Clean Air Network (CAN), a Hong Kong NGO, to encourage Hongkongers to think about environmentally friendly modes of transport.
Surprisingly – or perhaps not, considering traffic these days – Kwok beat the car, arriving at his destination in a little over 19 minutes.
The bicyclist came in first at a speedy eight and a half minutes, while the driver took over 40 minutes, including walking to the car park and finding parking at the destination.
They did not, however, include the time it would have taken for the runner to look presentable and remove the stench of body odour before public contact, but we get the point: we should all be thinking of walking, biking and running more instead of taking taxis or private cars.
“The old model of building roads to accommodate more cars should give way to a new style of thinking: Transport 2.0- fair use of roads between road users, pedestrian and cyclists included in road planning,” said Sum Yin Kwong, the CEO of CAN.
Now that would be something: a Hong Kong where we all get to share the roads, regardless of our chosen mode of transport (or political leanings).
