The government of New Ireland should be nominated for becoming the most “bicycle friendly community” on Earth.
The province on an island northeast of Papua New Guinea has set aside the equivalent of $67,800 to pay half the cost of bicycles purchased from local stores.
Finally, some elected officials have finally heard the twofold message that bicycle advocates have been preaching for years: Bicycling makes people healthier, and bike use reduces the costs of maintaining roads.
Equal use of roads
Pacific Magazine reports that New Ireland Governor Sir Julius Chan urged students to take advantage of the new subsidy. In addition to making them more physically fit and reducing the maintenance cost for roads:
The availability of cheap bicycles would also enable more villagers to use public roads, an infrastructure that only the island province’s wealthy use and enjoy “at the expense of the majority.”
The province's Buluminisky Highway runs the length of the island, mainly along the northern coast, and is one of 16 national roads that must share the $189.4 million road maintenance budget for the nation.
The highway was built to link the coconut plantations that marked the island's main economy.
Tropics
Are you thinking of moving to this tropical paradise to take advantage of the subsidy?About 118,000 people live in the province, mostly in small villages. The 200-mile long, thin island is covered in dense rainforest and has a high ridge along its length that summits at the 7,054 Mount Lambel.
I'd recommend a sturdy mountain bike.
A local custom involves honoring the dead through Malagan ceremonies, which involve carved masks, figures and posts and mourners painted in black.
Saturday's weather forecast for Kavieng, the provincial capital: High 84, low 82, with a 40% chance of thunderstorms.
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