SUPAN THONGMAK
Supan Thongmak got on a two-wheeler and biking for him was just everyday life and not a lifestyle choice — it is a career and not a trend.
The 43-year-old found himself a job in the capital 14 years ago as a hawker selling dried squid after he turned his back on farming in the South. He started off by selling street delicacies on foot but soon took up biking because it allowed him to cover more places and get more customers.
Repeatedly touring around crowded corners of Chinatown from 5pm to 3am, he logs a distance of no less than 20km a day. Due to that, he said, he’s healthy. Having been strapped to the saddle for over a decade during a time when the only bikers were people like him, something like the recent Bike for Mom event definitely caught him by surprise.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the number of participants on the day the event was held,” said Supan. “I was just guessing the number of participants with my friends and I thought it was 20,000 tops. Then I saw the number on the news and I was like ‘whoa’.”
Of course, Supan was excited to witness a bike-related event on such a scale for the first time in his life. And with the idea of bike lanes being pushed forward, he is surely someone who would be in favour. But while he still has no clue how practical bike lanes would be for hawkers like him, he said once the lanes near the area he passes daily are finished, he would be the first to use them.
However, as someone who has been in road accidents over the course of his work, Supan also thinks that the country, in terms of road safety for bikers, has deep-rooted problems. He points out that not only do roads need to be entirely reconditioned, better education for new bikers as well as laws protecting them are needed.
“If the government is serious about this at all, it needs to pay attention to these things,” said Supan. “This is only the beginning.”
RATH RUNGARAM
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For someone who has been cycling to work since 2007, like graphic designer Rath Rungaram, biking is a true passion that goes beyond events like Bike for Mom.
“I think if you really want to cycle, it should be part of your daily lifestyle,” said the 35-year-old who bikes from his home at Liab Duan to the Elle Decoration magazine office at Klong Toey. Despite his enthusiasm for cycling in general, he remains nonchalant towards the big event that took place two Sundays ago.
“I wasn’t interested in it at all because I don’t like to bike in big crowds with lots of people. I didn’t want to have to queue in long lines to get the T-shirts and all the registering seemed like a big hassle,” he said. After eight years of biking to work on a daily basis, Rath has cycled around the city long enough to know that little has changed over the years.
“The roads back then were not OK and they still aren’t,” he said. “Bike for Mom is just a one-day thing — just a buzz. It’s not going to help with anything, because the roads aren’t going to get better, traffic isn’t going to get better, people on the road aren’t going to care about us more and they won’t stop parking in the bike lanes either.”
According to Rath, the bike lanes are actually more dangerous than biking on the roads.
“There are lots of holes and uneven bumps on the bike lanes. Even cycling on the roads is sometimes better. It would be nice if the government could help in making better roads without pipes, holes and puddles,” he said. Bad roads are still one of the main problems for bikers, along with the heat. Rath only needs to change a top after he gets to work, but it is impossible for him to not take a shower when he gets to the office. It may be no trouble for him to do so — plus he saves a couple of thousand baht on transportation every month — yet a cycling culture is not something he expects to see in Thailand.
“I don’t think that day will ever come, because Thai people don’t really place importance on bikes,” he said. “Still, it would be a great thing if people could see the benefit, because you’d be free from traffic, you can save some money, you don’t need to get any fitness club memberships and it’s fun too. I think if your heart really wants to bike, then it won’t see anything as a big deal. You just need to be alert while you are cycling and learn to be careful.”