Glimpses of Taiwan’s cycling scene

I’ve been rummaging through the hundreds of photos that I shot last summer during a visit to South Korea and Taiwan, and found that I have several that provide a glimpse of Taiwan’s cycling scene.
The two-wheeled vehicle of choice in that island nation is still the motor scooter. The scooters are ubiquitous. They speed through the congested streets like swarms of killer bees. Hundreds more are parked on the sidewalks, blocking pedestrian traffic.
But use of bicycles has increased over the past few years as Taiwanese authorities have built thousands of kilometers of paved, illuminated trails and other cycling infrastructure.
In one respect, the effort to promote cycling in Taipei, a traffic-clogged, polluted metropolitan area of nearly 7 million, has been a victim of its own success — as I wrote in a March 11, 2010, blog post with help from my oldest son, Ben, who lives and works in Taipei.
Here are a few of the bicycle-related photos that I shot in Taiwan last August.

Bicycles available for rental as part of Taipei's bike-sharing program, begun in the spring of 2009

A section of trail along the Xindian River in Taipei

A cyclist waits for the light to change in Taipei

A bike lane in central Taipei

Sign for a "cyclist rest stop" in Danshui (sometimes spelled Tamsui), Taiwan