PHRA NAKHON — At Unakan intersection on the route to Sam Yot Station, 11th-grade student Krittaphat Trakulthongcharoen fell on his first bike-share ride last year.

Krittaphat, who calls himself a “rookie,” struggled to balance while switching between sidewalks and the road. His friend Chawanut Treamwattana was with him.

“The sidewalks are supposed to be dual-use for bikes and people, but they’re not really suitable for bikes in their current conditions because they’re really bumpy,” Chawanut said. “If a person is particularly weak at biking, they’re going to fall off immediately.”

That fall helped spur Bike4All.

Krittaphat and Chawanut are among eight 11th graders at Suankularb Wittayalai School who formed Bike4All to push for safer biking infrastructure and encourage residents to bike for the first and last mile of daily trips.

The group pitched its plan to BKK Ranger, Bangkok’s youth council, in August and is working with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and bike-sharing companies on improvements around the school.

Their advocacy coincides with the “night ride” trend. Bike-sharing trips rose 60% in October from September to 171,492, a BMA spokesperson said.

Before their 1.5-kilometer commute to Sam Yot Station after school, six of them told Soiciety what it would take to make Bangkok rideable and how night rides could become daily transport.

Pakapat Weerawat, a group member, has biked most of his life.

He started biking just a few months ago from Suankularb to Samyan Mitrtown for after-school classes, then home near Rama IX around 9 p.m.

He didn’t know any bike routes at first, so he shared the road with cars and motorcycles. It was “quite dangerous,” he said.

Chawanut had been watching videos of street-safety advocates in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands. In Thailand, he said, the common view is that bike-friendly changes would cause “traffic Armageddon.”

Then he looked at the road in front of his school. Tri Phet Road is six lanes wide, with sidewalks 2 to 3 meters wide.

“There’s plenty of space to accommodate everyone,” he said.

Motorcycles parked on nearby sidewalks also block the route to the MRT station, Krittaphat said.

“The turning point is that we just began using bikes more often because they became available, and we recognized the issues with them,” Chawanut said. “So we wanted to do something to fix the issues.”

The group’s August proposal to Bangkok officials includes a pilot route from Sanam Chai Station to the Sao Ching Cha City Hall and more bike-sharing stations.

Before that pitch, the group surveyed 146 students through a Google Form. Results Soiciety reviewed show that 56% are interested in biking for part of their commute. Students most often cited safety, at 46%, and distance, at 40%, as barriers.

Bangkok residents travel an average of 14.38 kilometers a day, and 8% commute by bicycle, according to the Thailand Walking and Cycling Institute. About 35% commute by car.

“When we first started this initiative, you’d only see maybe five or 10 people riding a day,” Chawanut said. “Now you could see five to 10 people in five minutes, just standing in front of the school.”

The group helped locate and install another bike-sharing parking spot at the school’s Chakkraphet gate, near Pak Khlong Talat, Chawanut said. Night riders and students use it.

The night riders and the group have different goals, though. Krittaphat said the night trails near Sanam Luang serve mainly tourists, while the group’s routes near City Hall and the school target last-mile trips to transit

Chawanut said night rides are a “great first step” because many people didn’t know bike-sharing existed in Bangkok.

“Now the issue is converting people from tourism to seeing bikes as transportation,” he said. “I think that will be much easier than just converting them from not biking at all to biking.”

Nattanan Vimuktanan, another group member, said he tried a night ride days before the interview and had to walk a few kilometers to find an available bike.

A BMA spokesperson said the city now has 719 bike-sharing stations in 35 districts and about 5,000 bikes. The bike-sharing program launched in January 2024 with 1,700 trips in its first month.

After the youth council presentation, officials in related offices gave the students their contacts to move the idea forward, Pakapat said.

From there, the group met with Hello Pun Pun, which gave Suankularb students promo codes for a free 30-minute ride. AnyWheel offered students 50% off a one-month pass and the minimum top-up.

The group’s next target is the Pahurat intersection, where Chawanut said it’s seeking pedestrian crossing signs.

“Currently, there’s no light, so you just have to test your luck and cross,” he said.

Most people the group has met support their effort, but Sornsiri Piyanawin, also an 11th grader, said opponents are mostly older adults who see biking as “dangerous.”

“The way things have been for them is different,” Sornsiri said. “Nowadays, it has evolved, and we want to innovate and improve on what we currently have by having bikes on the road, on the sidewalks. It may be safer for us all.”

Thatchakorn Poolsil, another group member, acknowledged that young riders like him tend to be “careless and unaware of traffic rules.”

“For me, another thing to be mindful of is that we need to instill proper awareness regarding traffic rules and biking awareness to ensure safety,” he said.

Chawanut said the group’s ideal is the Netherlands, where more than one-quarter of trips are on bicycles. But the students said that isn’t realistic in Thailand within 10 years. 

In that time, Krittaphat said he wants organized public lots so bikes don’t block walkways and public bathrooms or showers for riders.

“We want every single mode of transportation to coexist,” Pakapat said.

Getting there depends on adults, the students said.

“We’re obviously teenagers, and it’s hard for us to make an impact on the city,” Krittaphat said. He added that the group is grateful the BMA and youth council listened.

After the interview, the six students walked from Suankularb toward Sam Yot Station, comparing the points and kilometers they’ve logged on their bike-share apps. 

Nattanan grabbed a bike near the school and rode off. Sornsiri left on foot. Thatchakorn picked up a bike at Old Siam Plaza. Chawanut, Pakapat and Krittaphat took three green AnyWheel bikes and headed to Sam Yan.

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