The lack of parking facility for bicycles has now been highlighted in the media.
Anyway, cycling is a sport as well, is it not? Cycling is not only confined to biking to NTUC or a Giant to pick up some groceries, you know.This is very disappointing for a so-called sports hub that aspires to be world class. There’s no doubt that it’s an impressive edifice but billing itself world class is a bit of exaggeration when cyclists cant even find a place to park their bikes.
On my first visit to the Sports Hub I couldn’t find a bike rack. I know there’s one near an MRT station but which station I didn’t know at the time (it’s at Stadium MRT station). Even the security people didn’t know. There are no directions pointing the way to a bike rack.
Like most things in Singapore, when the authorities can’t dip into your pocket to extract some form of payment, it’s low priority to them.
The Sports Hub is now looking into providing more bike racks following the outcry. The Hub is a huge place and more bike racks around it would make things convenient for cyclists.
In the meantime Sports Hub should be less arrogant and stop issuing threatening love letters to cyclists to wheel clamp their bikes as if they’ve committed a crime of the century.
Sports Hub has retailers like NTUC, Uniglo and eateries. Does Sports Hub want cyclists to boycott them? Incidentally, I was cycling past Sports Hub the other day but since it doesn’t welcome cyclists I opted to boycott the eateries there although I was quite famished after a long ride.
This is another reason why I didn’t go for the Juventus soccer match. Heard the attendance was disappointing.
Clearly Sports Hub has scored an own goal. Without “customers” Sports Hub might one day become just a white elephant.
Roger Poh
* The author blogs at www.rogerpoh.wordpress.com