For the past two weeks, I’ve been trying to write something a little more professional than an open letter rant about two situations that have caught on the local news circuits. The HK protest and the PMD footpath ban.

But no matter how I try, it seems impossible to put into value-neutral words how frustrating the conversations around these situations have been.

I want to talk about the HK protest, debunk some common misunderstandings, media spin, and ideas. I really, really do. But if the conversations I’ve had these few weeks have taught me anything, is that Singaporeans are too selfish to care about their misconceptions.

Instead, I’ll be asking you some questions while paraphrasing repeated answers I’ve been hearing for the past month now.

Here’s my question. How do you justify banning PMDs from footpath?

Deaths. PMDs are dangerous vehicles that cause deaths to pedestrians. 

How many deaths are considered unsafe?

Even one death is too many.

I agree. But there must be a number, otherwise, we’d be banning cars and motorcycles as well.

I don’t know. About XX a year?

Only 6 PMD deaths were recorded in 2 years between 2017 and 2018. (Source [1])

But those were all pedestrians.

No. All of those were PMD riders. The only recorded death is the one from this year.

That’s one too many. Especially when there are so little PMDs in Singapore. 

True. There’s 1 pedestrian death for every 100,000 PMDs. There are also 4 pedestrian deaths for every 100,000 cars. Not driver deaths. Pedestrian deaths. (Source [1][2])

But there are so many accidents from PMDs! People are getting hurt!

If I’m being very, very generous, cars alone cause nearly 4x the number of death per 100,000 vehicles. You’re 25x more likely to get killed by a car as a pedestrians. That’s over 7,000 accidents compared to 300, buddy. 25 deaths compared to 1. [1]

But PMDs mostly hurt pedestrians, right? There are over 300 accidents.

The reported number of pedestrian accidents is 7. The rest are all riders. That’s about 3 a year. And it actually decreased if you count 2019, but potato potato. [1]

They are not banned from riding everywhere. Just on footpaths.

Cycling on the road is 3x more fatal and 5x more dangerous than on pathways. Pushing PMD riders onto the road is asking them to die. [1][2]

If you are so smart, what’s your solution?

Paint cycling lanes on the main roads. Enforce new laws that protect cyclists from dangerous drivers and vice-versa and slowly transition to road usage. Same cost as the incentives. Same time to past the law. Same effort to maintain. Provides LTA jobs. Doesn’t affect the market. Nobody loses their jobs. Actually helps.

…

So, why are you against PMDs on footpaths again?

In a perfect world, this is where the conversation would end. Faced with overwhelming sourced statistical evidence, and an actual plausible solution from a cyclist of over a decade of road experience, that should be it.

But no. You guys just keep going. You compare Singapore to other countries that banned PMDs. Then in the same breath, while I talk about how certain countries use PMDs to go green, you say we can’t compare Singapore to other countries because we’re so different.

You say my suggestion is too perfect. That I’m morally and logically right and it’s doable, but it’s not practical and we should come up with a practical solution instead. What the fuck does that even mean?  Do you know what’s the difference between the right answer and every other answer? Every other answer is not right.

It’s like saying, “Hey, child abuse is wrong even if it makes parenting easier. And the logical and moral thing to do would be to stop child abuse. But parenting is hard so the solution is impractical. So we’re just going to compromise and abuse them a little bit.”

What. The. Fuck.

I want to remind you, these are ACTUAL points of arguments I’ve received in the past month! REAL people used these fallacious logics unironically and genuinely thinks they are correct!

I see people I talk to the same day just go back home to the guise of social media and spout the same bullshit talking points and same fake statistics over and over again.

“We don’t need to stop and think about the message. Just listen, pick a side that helps you sleep at night, then scream about how righteous you’ve been onto Facebook to people who already agrees with you to get your internet points for the day.”

It’s like some fucking Groundhog Day bullshit, except I don’t actually make any progress. At least Bill Murray made some fucking progress and is allowed to kill himself to put himself out of his misery.

Seriously, you self-centred assholes, just think. Stop and fucking think. Who are you actually affecting with this ban? Not who you feel you’re affecting, but who are you – in reality – affecting?

The 100,000 people you’re affecting are made up of deliverymen whose livelihood depends on their PMDs. Maybe they have a bad back and can’t ride a bike, like most elderly workers. Maybe they can’t afford to fork out the money for a motorcycle/car plus license. Perhaps they are sick and can’t work 9-5 jobs. Maybe they can’t get other jobs ~ because everyone loves delivering shit for assholes in the scorching humid Singapore Sun.

Grandparents taking their grandchildren home from school. Commuters going green. People with leg injuries.

“Pushing PMD riders onto the road is asking them to die.”

Do you know who’s not affected? The about 200 riders who are errant who will continue anyway. 0.2%. Do you know who else isn’t affected? You. Out of the over 4,000,000 pedestrians, only 150 of you will ever get into a PMD accident in a year. That’s 0.003%. That percentage is so low, the road statistics don’t even show it in percentage because it is statistically negligible.

Also, I’m not affected. I don’t ride a PMD, in case you think I have something to gain here.

But what does this have to do with Hong Kong?

Everything. Every fallacy used in arguing for the PMD ban has been used to point out how bad the Hong Kong protesters are. I guesss Singaporeans are just one-trick ponies.

The protestors are violent, causing deaths, and affecting their country. Often by the same people who supports the ban and often with the same type of faulty statistics.

Hey, jackass, who’s affected the most by the protest? Is it you? Because if the protest ends tomorrow, you may be able to go shopping in HK again. Your business may be able to run there again. Heck, the civilians not participating can go about their lives again.

But what happens if the protestors fail?

They are going to die. China’s track record of human right abuses almost guarantees it. Heck, they are dying right now. They’re going to lose their freedom of speech. They’re going to jail. They’ll be tortured. They are going to lose their government. They are going to lose their country’s identity. They are going to lose Hong Kong.

But hey, you feel bad about the fighting, right? I mean, omg, who needs to check statistics and facts when you can just feel bad.

So when The Straits Time and SCMP, “bastions” of unbiased China news they are, tell you the protestors are dangerous, sure. Why not?

We don’t need to stop and think about the message. Just listen, pick a side that helps you sleep at night, then scream about how righteous you’ve been onto Facebook to people who already agrees with you to get your internet points for the day.

I’m pretty sure you’re right.

(Featured Image from Yahoo News Singapore file photo)