Cycling Can Increase Productivity

Cycling is a fun activity. If it is done regularly, it can improve our health. Our body will be fitter through riding a bicycle. The health improvement, we get, is shown in reduced obesity, improved blood pressure and circulation. Most of us know well that obesity has become a major weight related problem in modern society. Obesity is found among 25 percent of adults and 10% of children. Unfortunately, many people still think that cycling is only for children going to school or playing round their neighborhood. Exercise will shape our body. But most people are reluctant to allocate a specific time for exercising because they are too busy working or finishing their office assignments.

A Office Worker with his bike

Around 41% of our daily trips are less than two miles. This is considered as short distance which can be reached through cycling in less than 15 minutes. As a way out of promoting cycling in the communities, cycling has to become an integral part of our daily life. Governments must spend more money in providing adequate infrastructures for cyclists such as parkings, and cycle network. The investment government spend in supporting cycling will immediately bring results in the communities.
More people cycling on the road mean fewer cars on the road, and less air polution. Cities and towns will be calm and less noisy. Our plan to implement 60% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 can be achieved by cycling. Riding bicycle is a clean low-carbon mode of travel. Healthier bodies and reduced street congestion improve the productivity of a community. The Netherlands is one of the European countries that has been seriously integrating cycling in its transport system. Bike to work or cycle to work should be introduced to companies. Tax exemption imposed by the state will allow employers to loan cycles and cyclist safety equipment to their employees. In addition, cycle manufacturers can implement a special credit scheme to businesses so that they will be able to offer bicycles to their staff. This sheme will encourage more workers to ride bicycles to work. if properly implemented, more people cycling will help workers staff more money, create healthier bodies and increase productivity as well as improve living condition and the surrounding environment. by Charles Roring
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Riding bicycle is one of the ways to create low carbon society

As global warming remains an important issue in our modern society and efforts to reduce CO2 emissions are still not fully effective due to the reluctance of developed countries and new emerging economies to reduce their emissions, then all of as as global citizens need to drastically change our lifestyle.to create low carbon environment.

Urban cycling

There are a number of ways which every individual can do to participate in reducing CO2 emissions. Such ways are rejecting plastic bags when going shopping, cycling to work, giving up smoking, and eating with spoon instead of wooden chopstick.

By rejecting plastic bags, we can reduce the littering of our streets, beaches and backyards. By cycling to work, we can prevent street congestions and at the same time reduce air pollution. By giving up smoking, we can have healthier body. And by eating with spoon and fork, we can stop unnecessary cutting of trees and bamboos.

Transport vehicles are major CO2 emitters in the world. In fact many of our daily trips are less than two miles. This short distance is achievable through cycling. In some countries, cycling has become the habit of the nations but in many countries cycling is still considered or seen as poor living. This wrong perception has to be removed in every society. Governments and communities must take actions to encourage or restore cycling among the people.
Municipalities must include cycling policy in their traffic system. Extensive cycling network is needed to encourage citizens to ride their bicycles. Cycling network and parking facilities are very important for creating cycling community. In addition, combating bicycle theft is also another important factor in supporting and protecting cyclists.
Car and truck owners must limit their speed in areas or streets where cyclists are mixed with other motorized vehicles. To avoid accidents, more bicycle lanes have to be built or allocated in the land transportation system. Bicycle lanes do not have to be side by side with road and streets. They can go through the parks, shopping centers and even along the beach.
There are still many other ways where everyone can directly contribute to the creation of low carbon society and healthier environment. All we need to do is changing or transforming our lifestyle so that we will not pollute our surrounding and damage the environment.
Our education system has to be totally reformed to include or introduce individual initiatives in fighting global warming.
Children have to be taught how to ride bicycles, sort domestic waste. Teenagers can be oriented with cross country program where they can directly see the nearest jungle, river and beach; and cleaning up campaign has to be introduced in every community.
During the Soviet era, the ruling regime had their citizens go out to the surrounding environment and doing the cleaning-up thus creating a clean neighborhood.
The Netherlands although a crowded country has been one of the most prosperous country in the world through its years of sustainable ways of living. The Dutch have been using wind mills to pump out water from wetlands since hundreds of years ago. This country is an example of the best low carbon society in the world. Dutch people can also be proud of being the heaven of cyclists. Cycling has significantly improved the living condition of the country thus increasing productivity, more saving instead of unnecessary spending on fossil fuel. This was written by Charles Roring.

Sharing A Bicycle

Boys and a bicycle

In European cities like Paris, and Rome, people can rent bicycles in the downtown if they want to travel around the cities by bicycles. The rental fee can be some euros a day. These bikes are also equiped with GPS devices which can trace the bicycles if they have gone beyond the restricted area.

Providing bicycles for rental in big cities, is one of the city programs in reducing air pollution and preventing traffic jams.

When we were young, we like riding around with our own bicycles. We rode around the neighborhood, schools, and towns. Sometimes we rode further away to the beaches, and foothills. We took for granted for the bicycles we had.

But in other part of the world, even a small bike is a luxurious thing. In Manokwari, a small town of Papua island, not all family can afford to buy a bike for their children.

Children who have bicycles sometimes have to share them with their friends. A few days ago I took a picture of children with a bicycle. A child who has the bike charge 5,000 rupiahs (around 50 cents USD) an hour as rental fee on his friends.

Such amount is considered expensive by these little children whose parents are not wealthy enough to buy bike. So, if they want to rent their friend's bike, they have to work as car or motorcycle washer. For every motor cycle they wash, they can obtain between 2,000 and 5,000 rupiahs.

Next time when we ride bicycles again, we can remember that there are thousands of children around the world whose daily night dream is having or riding their own bicycles.

Manokwari town

If you are interested in taking a holiday in Manokwari town, you could enjoy swimming at the beach or go hiking in the forest to watch tropical birds of paradise and other wild animals. This was written by Charles Roring.

Cycling in Manokwari

I like riding my mountain bike in the afternoons as my way to refresh my mind after the usual 9 to 5 working time at my work. For me cycling is my hobby. I can spend one hour exploring the coastal road on the west of Manokwari town. I usually leave home at 4 and reach the Bakaro beach at around 5.15. I will sit there for a while at a gazebo to see the waves landing on the rocky beach before riding back to Kompleks Missi. The bicycle that I use is the Cozmic DX 2.0. It is a dirt jump bike that was manufactured by Polygon. Polygon is a famous bicycle manufacturer in Indonesia. The company has produced various types of bicycles from the ones that are suitable for office workers to the mountain bikes that are good for terrains in West Papua's north coast.

British student was cycling in Manokwari

Bike Commuting

How can we promote bike commuting or urban cycling among city dwellers who are used to riding motorcycles or driving cars? This is an important question that all of us need to answer.
Percentages of Bike Commuting Lifestyle
On page 7 of Making Cycling Irresistable: Lessons from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany written by John Pucher and Ralph Buehler, I found some interesting figures. Bike commuting (travel to work or school) accounts for 28 % in Germany, 32% in the Netherlands and 35% in Denmark. These are technologically advanced states in Europe where car ownership is almost universal. Most of their citizens have got cars but they take up cycling as their preferred mode of transportation due to its health, economic, social and environmental benefits.

Some women were cycling in Makassar

Mountain Biking in the Rainforest

I like to ride my mountain bike to rainforest. The destination is Table Mountain, northern and southern coast of Manokwari. This is a beautiful coastal city in West Papua. As a matter of fact, West Papua province in Indonesia is a very nice place for cycling and mountain biking tours. There are several routes that I like to pedal through including Southern Coast, Northern Coast, Mount Soribo, Pasir Putih and Cape Bakaro. These places are suitable for mountain bikers.

Mountain Bike Community in Manokwari with an Italian Tourist

How to Reduce Dependency On Fossil Fuels

We live in the era where most of our energy needs come from fossil fuels. We travel by cars and motorcycles that use gasoline and diesel fuel, we use electricity at homes supplied by utility companies whose generators run on coal, diesel or compact natural gas. We travel to cities in overseas countries by aircrafts that use jet fuel (avtur). Everyday we emit greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming. We may used up our oil in the next 50 years and coal in the next 100 years.

Cycling lifestyle is good for our health & environment

Renewable Enery and Hydrogen are now being considered as the most suitable solution to reduce CO2 emmision. Electricity generated drom solar and wind powerplant can be used to electrolized water to produce green hydrogen. When brought to -253 °C, the hydrogen will become liquid. This fuel can be used for a large varieties of application including cars, ship, airplanes, factories and a lot more. Countries like Japan, Germany, South Korea, Australia, the United States, French, Spain, China and etc. are investing huge amount of money on building hydrogen society. The policy of shifting from fossil fuel economy to hydrogen economy is seen as the solution for creating an environmentally friendly society. 

In addition to addoption of carbon neutral economy through the use of hydrogen, there are a lot of conventional ways that we can do to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels:

• Conserve Energy - The simplest way to do is by reducing our use of fossil fuels. At nights when we sleep, we turn off the lights in our houses. When we go to nearby shops whose distance is less than 1 km, instead of riding motorcycles, we can walk. When we travel by cars or motorcycles, we can use gps aided navigation software such as google map and waze to help us find the shortest route for us. This free to use application greatly help us in saving fuel. Most of us now use LED lights. This technology converts around 95 percent of electrical energy into lights and only 5 % that becomes heat. We can also install solar thermal collector to heat water at homes instead of using electricity.
• Create fuel efficient vehicles. This can clearly be seen in aviation industry. Aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, Airbus, Comac, Irkut, and ATR are developing passenger planes that use less fuel. Certain parts of modern aircrafts are made of carbon fiber and other compound materials that are lighter but strong and safe for long flights. Jet Engine manufacturers such as CFM International, Pratt and Whitney,  MTU, Rolls Royce, Aviadvigatel and etc. use advanced materials such as monocrystalline metal compounds, CMC (Ceramic Matrix Composites) to make high bypass jet engines that are lighter, powerful but consume less fuel. In the automotive industry, the trend is also the same. The availability of GPS Navigation Apps such as Google Map and Waze greatly help motorcycle and car drivers to reach their destinations efficiently.
• Take up cycling as our lifestyle - countries like China, the Netherlands, and Denmark, Sweden, Japan, and Norway have got significant percentage of their populations who use bicycles in their daily life. Bicycle manufacturers have improved their products by creating lighter but stronger bikes for their users. There are also with gears that can be used to climb steep slopes. Shimano is one of the leading companies that manufacture derailleur gears for mountain bikes. This technology has greatly helped cyclists when they want to ride their bikes in hilly countries. Electrical bikes with rechargeable batteries are now available in the market. If an owner recharges his or her electric bikes using electricity that is produced by photovoltaic or other renewable energy resources, he or she has reduced the use of fossil fuels.
• Use organic fertilizer - In agricultural sector, we use natural gas to make nitrogen fertilizer. We also use train, large ships, and big trucks that use diesel fuel to transport it from factories to farmlands. We can reduce the use of this synthetic fertilizer or urea by using organic fertilizer. Traditional farmers in Asian countries have done this since ancient times for their rice crops. Certain farmers apply crop rotation methods to increase the productivity of their farmland without significantly increase the use of urea fertilizer.
• Increase the use of renewable energy - Solar power (both photovoltaic and concentrated heat), hydropower, wind, and ocean thermal conversion as well as biomass are needed to completely replace fossil fuels. Huge percentage of our energy is spent for transportations. With the development of electric vehicles, we are now seeing electric cars that can be recharged faster and that can travel in longer distances. Technological companies are now investing huge amount of their money on trying to create batteries that are smaller but can store energy in higher density.

Some readers may disagree when I mention biomass in the last point above because the burning of wood and other organic materials to create heat and generate electricity is not a wise plan. I understand that wood burning will produce carbon dioxide and other toxic gases. However, proper preparation of the fuel materials before burning coupled with good and well thought design of the powerplant can reduce the emission of toxic gases and other harmful particles into the atmosphere. The extraction of scrab lumber, forest debris, and agricultural wastes is important in removing highly flammable debris from the forest and its surroundings. In other words, biomass powerplants that use forest debris play significant roles in reducing forest fire. The extraction of forest debris enhances the health of the forest itself.

It is not easy to create a modern carbon neautral society that 100% use renewable energy and other environmentally friendly means to survive. We have got the technology to do that. All we need now is strong will and serious commitment to achieve it. - written by Charles Roring
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Cattle Egret

I spent three months traveling in Bali early this year. It was a nice experience because I could watch some species of birds while riding bicycle around Ubud or walking through endless rows of rice field. Bali is the island of the gods - the place where temples are integrated with beautiful nature. One afternoon I rode my bicycle along Jalan Campuhan just for sight seeing. At a turn of the road I saw a farmer plowing his rice field with a motorized hand tractor. Behind him was some cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis). When I took some pictures of them, I didn't know their name. I used a bridge camera - Nikon Coolpix P500. I don't have  a digiscope. I have to read A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia to identify their species.

These birds were searching for food among the dirt which had just been turned over by the farmer. I don't know whether it was worm, small fish or frog which the birds were eating. Most of them have got white feather with pale brown plumage covering their heads and neck. Their bills are yellow. I saw one whose feather was completely white among the other cattle egret. I don't know whether it is still the same species or different.

It's amazing that these cattle egret birds were not afraid of human. Compared to New Guinea, the number of species of birds in Bali is lower. However, they can still be seen even in urban and rural areas of Ubud. I like the Balinese way of living that protects trees for spiritual reasons. It allows birds to build their nests. Small birds like to eat grains that are put by the Balinese on the grounds and temples as daily offerings to gods or spirits. What the Balinese do directly support the life of birds.
Bali is a tropical island in Indonesia. It is now the most popular travel destination in the country. Every year millions of people go to Bali's coastal towns to enjoy sunbathing, swimming wave surfing or even scuba diving. Those who like staying in rural areas prefer to stay in Ubud. This was written by Charles Roring