We rode this evening’s 11th Hong Kong Ride of Silence in fine weather, the usual route from TST clock tower to Cheung Sha Wan and back, about 14 km.  A total of 950 riders, young and old, commuters, leisure riders and sportspeople, remembering ten people who died on our roads while cycling, and 468 seriously injured (that’s nearly one in five of all seriously injured on our roads)

At a simple ceremony at the start, a minute’s silence was held while riders kneeled beside their bikes, heads bowed.  A bell was struck ten times, once for each who passed, while the Hong Kong Adventure Corps played The Last Post.

The focus of our ride this year was the lack of consideration for people who ride bikes in the design and management of our built infrastructure.  Morevoer, when urban space is designed to be safe for people on bikes, it makes a safer and nicer city for everyone.

District Councillor Paul Zimmerman drew attention to the poor design of the cycle tracks planned for Kai Tak Development, which won’t reach to the residential areas or the MTR stations, because they are being planned without consideration of how people will use them to get around, only as a “leisure facility”.

Also joining the ride were Legislative Councillors: Hon. Dennis KWOK Wing Hang (郭榮鏗), Hon. KWOK Ka Ki (郭家麒), Hon. Frederick Fung Kin-kee (馮檢基) and Hon. Gary FAN Kwok Wai (范國威), all of whom addressed the group during the ceremony.