1,000 notices issued for indiscriminately parked shared bikes since Jan

SINGAPORE — The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has served around 1,000 notices for indiscriminately parked dockless bikes since the start of this year, Senior Minister of State (Transport) Lam Pin Min told the House in an update on Monday (July 3).

Of these, 200 bicycles were impounded, of which about half have been retrieved by the dockless bike operators. The authority imposes a fee for operators to collect the bikes.

Dr Lam was responding to several questions raised by Members of Parliament on the Government’s plans in taking to task users who park indiscriminately as well as vandalise bikes.

The LTA has received about 70 complaints of indiscriminate parking of dockless bikes thus far this year, excluding the many comments on forums and social media.

There are about 29,000 to 30,000 shared bikes currently available in the market, and the LTA is working with the three bike operators— including Chinese firms Mobike and ofo, as well as homegrown oBike—to moderate their growth so as to “prevent indiscriminate parking and disamenities to the public”, Dr Lam added.

While there are no new players at the moment, the authorities foresee that “there may be potential for new entrants in the future”, he said.

The proliferation of dockless bike-sharing has resulted in widespread indiscriminate parking as well as theft and vandalism of the shared bicycles, despite community policing schemes which award or deduct credits from users based on their behaviour.

Last week, a 47-year-old man who threw an ofo bicycle from the 15th-floor corridor of a block of flats in Upper Boon Keng Road was jailed for nine weeks, making him the first person to be dealt with in court for abusing a shared bike.

Four teenagers were also arrested last month for throwing a bicycle into a canal near the Punggol MRT station and bus interchange.

Urging the authorities to take a “more stringent approach” against such culprits, Member of Parliament for Mountbatten Lim Biow Chuan said: “If we do nothing, it looks like we are allowing behaviour that totally disregards (the misuue and abuse of bikes)…. Would the police take a more stringent approach against culprits who abuse bikes, dismantle them and convert them for their own use… To me, that is theft.”

In response, Parliamentary Secretary (Home Affairs and Health) Amrin Amin said the authorities will work closely to conduct enforcement action and take punitive action “when necessary”.

“Prosecution by itself will not eliminate the problem of misuse or abuse of rental bicycles. Companies have to take responsibility,” he said.

Asked if the current number of bike-parking lots – there are about 130,000 – are sufficient, Dr Lam said the LTA is working with authorities such as the National Parks Board, Housing and Development Board, as well as various town councils to increase bicycle parking capacity within their premises.

Thus far, the LTA has launched 34 bicycle parking zones—which are quicker to implement than bike racks and can each accommodate some 1400 bicycles—at MRT stations, and will be providing more, including near bus stops. 

Another 6,000 bicycle racks will be added to various MRT stations, and another 500 lots in the city area, by 2019.

Stressing that bike-share operators must cooperate with the authorities, Dr Lam said: “LTA requires them to promptly remove their bicycles which are indiscriminately parked. It is in their interest to cooperate with the authorities. Any public backlash may make the business model unsustainable.”

CORRECTION: Mr Amrin Amin is Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and Health, not Transport as earlier reported. We are sorry for the error.