200 more bike parking spaces at 10 zones rolled out

SINGAPORE — To encourage cyclists to park responsibly, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has rolled out 10 more bike parking zones near bus stops in high-demand areas like Bedok, Loyang, Sembawang and City Hall.

These rectangular zones, marked with a bright yellow border, will provide around 200 more parking spaces, making a total of 950 across the island since the start of the year.

Since the influx of dockless bike-sharing operators late last year, indiscriminate parking has been a problem the authorities, town councils and the bike operators have had to grapple with.

The LTA first announced this bike parking zone initiative in March, launching zones near the Punggol, Hougang, Paya Lebar, Khatib, Sembawang, Pioneer and Lakeside MRT stations. These added about 750 parking spaces to existing designated parking locations like parking racks at MRT stations, void decks, parks and town centres.

Several bike-sharing operators have introduced schemes to penalise ungracious biking behaviour — including indiscriminate parking — and reward users who call out such behaviour. One of the bike-sharing operators, Mobike, has also pledged to roll out 1,000 parking areas by year end in its bid to encourage responsible user behaviour and give riders more convenient access to the bikes.

Despite these measures, the problem of indiscriminate parking continues unabated, with many bikes left in the middle of pathways, on grass patches, or blocking letterboxes at void decks.

Last month, the LTA said it has impounded some 40 dockless bicycles that were found parked indiscriminately.

In a Facebook post on Friday (June 9), the LTA reiterated that “strict enforcement action” will be taken against all indiscriminately parked bicycles.