For the first time, downtown Yangon has a bike lane for cyclists and trishaws. Now comes the herculean task of convincing motorists to respect it.
Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) and NGO Yangon Heritage Trust (YHT) painted the lane over the last week as part of a wider effort to improve lower Seikkantha Street.
Drivers immediately began parking their cars on the designated 800-foot stretch, an unsurprising development for many Yangonites who vented their frustrations online.
But the initiative has been warmly welcomed in a city choked with traffic.
“There has been a very positive response on our Facebook page,” YHT programme manager Rupert Mann told Myanmar Mix.
“We would like to see a comprehensive network across the city so that people can ride all the way from way up north to down south but also across the city east to west. There are some important, dangerous places where it would be great to have protection, so hopefully more people will cycle.”
The group carefully made room for the four-foot wide lane—no easy undertaking on most Yangon streets, which are under “huge pressure” of vendors, pedestrians, generators, parked cars, trees and other elements, said Mann.
Plans are in place to install benches, exercise equipment and bins on the street too because “it’s part of YHT’s mission to make the streets more liveable and the public realm more healthy and accessible,” he said.
Creating awareness among motorists and changing the attitude of inconsiderate drivers is down to YCDC.
“Sometimes we go down to that street and see people parking their cars on top of the bike lane,” said Mann. “They think it’s just a nice place to put your car and leave it there."
YCDC assistant director Kan Nyunt said "punishment would most likely be a fine and licence confiscation" for motorists who use the lane.
"We plan to put up signs if this kind of thing were to happen again," he said. "We are going to expand [the network], no doubt, but we're still in the process of planning where to next."
