1,000 notices for wrongly-parked bikes
Stray bicycles are promptly removed, LTA to provide more parking space
About 1,000 notices for indiscriminately-parked shared bicycles were issued by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) this year, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Lam Pin Min yesterday.
If these bicycles are not removed within half-a-day, LTA will impound them, levy a fee on the bicycle-sharing operators for the resources used for the impounding and fine the companies.
About 200 bicycles have been impounded, of which half have been collected by the operators.
Dr Lam was addressing queries by Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Zaqy Mohamad and Jurong GRC MP Ang Wei Neng on issues arising from dockless bicycle-sharing schemes.
An estimated 29,000 to 30,000 shared bikes from three companies - Mobike, ofo and oBike - are available in Singapore.
Besides working with the companies to ensure that wrongly-parked bicycles are promptly removed, LTA is increasing parking spaces. Currently, there are about 130,000 spaces islandwide.
LTA has implemented 34 bicycle parking zones, which can accommodate 1,400 bicycles, at MRT stations. These are quicker to implement than bicycle racks and LTA will be providing more, including near bus stops, said Dr Lam.
Over 6,000 more bicycle racks at various MRT stations, and another 500 lots in the city area will be implemented by 2019.
The companies told The New Paper they are also looking at ways to curb indiscriminate parking and encourage responsible usage.
Mobike has its own GPS smart lock and IoT technology to allocate its fleet. It uses advanced big data analysis to assess user need and predict traffic flows.
oBike launched its bike-parking location indicators to demarcate existing designated areas for bike parking to help riders better identify parking areas throughout Singapore.
Ofo employs a comprehensive backend system which tracks and identifies bikes that are involved in violations and deploys teams on the ground hourly to ensure optimal operation and maintenance inspections.
Ofo, Mobike and oBike have a credit system that encourages "positive user behaviour" and penalises behaviours such as indiscriminate parking.
Users with zero credits will be banned.
Mr Elgin Ee, general manager of oBike, said: "As a technology company, oBike constantly looks at ways to enhance our features and educate the public on responsible cycling etiquettes and social graciousness...
"We also encourage oBike users to get in touch with us directly regarding any bicycles parked at non-designated areas.
"From there, our maintenance team will be deployed, and we will proceed to collect and re-dispatch the bicycle."
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
