Thursday, December 4, 2014

Frederic shares his experience on Cycling VS Car in Singapore

This is Frederic Gillant. 47 year young:) He is the Head of Asia-Pacific for a Silicon-Valley company, ShoreTel.
Previously worked at Orange business services. He has been in Information Communication Technology(ICT) industry for a long time.. 

He shares abit about himself .... “I like triathlon, running, cycling, biking and FOOD! I initially started be more active so that I can eat everything I want, especially in Singapore. Fond of laksa, oyster omelette, chicken rice of course and Taiwanese chou tofu (and all Taiwan street food).
Photo Credit Frederic 

Photo Credit Frederic 
I have been living in 5 years in Singapore, French national, PR for 4 years. Married to a Taiwanese native, living in Asia since 1991 (Taiwan, KL, Beijing, Singapore)
He shared his Bike VS Car experience in Singapore context at Lovecyclingsg face book on 2nd Dec and it received an awesome number of likes(251!!!).  
“As I was preparing my bike yesterday evening, my wife asked me "Are you again riding to the office tomorrow? I really wonder why you bought this car..." I confess that I did buy 6 months ago a new, (too) large and (too) expensive German car. I have come to realize how ridiculous this was and only motivated by vanity. Consider these simple stats over the past 2 months:
- 500 km with the car. Average speed: 26.4 km/h. Time to come back from the office (Suntec) to home (bukit Timah) on Friday evening: 38 minutes. Average trip length: 9 km. Cost of these 500 km: around 600 SGD of petrol, parking and ERP, excluding car amortization (price, COE, road tax and insurance, yes, thousands and more)
- 500 km with the bike. Average speed: 26.7 km/h. Yes, faster. Time to come back from the office (Suntec) to home (bukit Timah) on Friday evening: 17 minutes. Average trip length: 32 km (week-end rides to Changi and Kranji).
Cost of these 500 km: 160 SGD for 2 months of fitness subscription, as Suntec offices do not have showers, excluding bike amortization (a couple of thousands less than the car).

So yes, I still need the car to carry people, dog and things once in a while. But what is the use of an outrageously priced, 5-meter long sedan? Not to mention supercars capable of 300 km/h, of which Singapore has the highest concentration in the world? Singapore will become a true bike-friendly city only when people will understand that one's honorability is not defined by their car, its size and price.
As for myself, I will use my nice German tank no more than 2 years and will downgrade to something definitely smaller. And to the guy with the yellow McLaren in the Tower 3 parking: I'll always be faster than you (on my bike)

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