In my wide-eyed naivety, I thought it’d be a splendid idea to cycle to work when I first moved to Kowloon, and so bought a second-hand fold-up bike. I immediately regretted venturing out onto Waterloo Road. The comical spectacle of a lanky Westerner astride a tiny contraption with wheels the size of dinner plates provoked so much staring, I might as well have been straddling a hippo.

But aside from the instant loss of face and unbearable pollution, it soon became clear why the only folks who risk cycling are gas canister delivery blokes and those with a death wish. So hazardous were the roads that after three close shaves in as many minutes, my poor bike found itself back on AsiaXpat.

Cycling is certainly a terrifying ordeal, and it seems to be getting worse, with government figures showing a 12.7 per cent rise in accidents since 2008 to 1,793 last year. For years, the Transport Department has been talking about linking up New Territory cycle lanes (a process that will itself take years). They have also promised 1,000 more parking spaces and an information service for cyclists. However, there are few plans for sharing roads in Kowloon and on the Island and so – unlike Japan and much of Europe – we remain far from transforming Hong Kong into a two-wheel haven.

The Cycling Alliance (hongkongside.com/hkcyclingalliance) is campaigning for safer streets, bike lanes, better parking and a lifting of bike bans on public transport. They also point to new provisions for cyclists within the UK Highway Code, on which our road system is based. While it’s no easy task to reverse-engineer a city built around the car, the government officially treats cycling as a leisure activity or sport. Instead, “Asia’s World City” should be brought in line with most other modern cities and cycling reclassified as a real zero-carbon transport alternative.

Tom Grundy, globalcitizen.co.uk