My cycling in Singapore experiences - time rebates

This is expanded from a comment on MrBrown's blog entry Oh you ride bicycle ah? No money buy car, issit?.

For more than a decade, I have been hearing and getting looks that say, "Oh you ride bicycle ah? No money issit?" and sad to say, I can't deny it 100% :(

However, it is ... what led me to cycling? time that led me to cycling.

And absolutely, yes, it is FUN because it is terribly not fun to wait for bus, wait for train, and walk another few more minutes to and from busstops and train stations. Indeed, after few months, once my tyre, or more correctly, tube punctured, I flagged a taxi when I had gotten impatient because the bus hadn't arrived after I waited for 5 minutes!

Once, I drove my brother's car for a few days to NUS while he was overseas. Although it took me only about 20 minutes from my door to reach campus, but another few very slow minutes circling around carpark looking/waiting for parking slots. I think I can get to NUS in roughly 35-40 minutes.

I am no environmentalist, or health nut, or bicycle athlete. Nevertheless, I was touched by a Professor in Hong Kong rides instead of drives because of his concerns for the environment.

Coming back to the topic of time, it is precious. Thus, many people are doing something while they are traveling, be it listening to MP3 while walking or driving, or playing games or SMSing on a bus or train. However, most of these activities are not that necessary, and can be done if given the time and not necessarily during commuting. In short, these activities are mainly to kill time :)

Whereas for cycling, it is an exercise by itself, and we are being encouraged to exercise regularly. However, many people find it difficult and taxing to squeeze time out to exercise. That's why during the few years when I rode 80 minutes weekly to and from NTU (my route), I classify the time as part of my weekly exercise time. So, I didn't spend a single minute in traveling to NTU = it took me 0 mintue to reach there = this is as fast as a teleportal machine :)

Nevermind if people want to call it Ah-Q spirit, or creative accounting.