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MRT stations set to have 4,700 new bicycle parking lots by 2019

SINGAPORE — To accommodate Singapore’s growing cyclist population, almost 5,000 new bicycle parking lots will be installed at MRT stations by 2019.

SINGAPORE — To accommodate Singapore’s growing cyclist population, almost 5,000 new bicycle parking lots will be installed at MRT stations by 2019.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on Wednesday (July 12) that it plans to call a tender in the coming weeks for the installation of 3,000 lots at 28 MRT stations.

This comes on top of 1,700 which will be fitted at new stations on the Downtown Line 3 which will open in October. 

More will be provided at stations that are likely to see a higher volume of cyclist traffic.

There are already 17,500 bicycle parking lots at MRT stations around the island. But since last year there has been an influx of operators offering rental bikes to users who do not have to return them to fixed docking stations. 

This has raised the problem of indiscriminate parking which has affected the authorities, town councils of housing estates and the operators themselves.

In a statement on Wednesday, the LTA said that it has added 34 new bicycle parking zones at MRT stations and bus stops, which can accommodate 1,400 bikes in all. 

It is also working with the National Parks Board and the Housing and Development Board to increase parking capacity for bicycles at other public spaces where there is high demand. 

To get cyclists to park responsibly at designated spots, the LTA and some bike-sharing operators have set up schemes to penalise inconsiderate users who park hapzardly, for instance, or award credits to users based on their behaviour. 

But the success rate seems low, as bikes are still left on footpaths, grass patches and void decks of public housing blocks, blocking fire escape routes and corridors. 

Last month, a 47-year-old man became the first person to be prosecuted for abusing a shared bike after he threw a dockless bicycle from the 15th-floor corridor of a public housing block along Upper Boon Keng Road. He was jailed nine weeks.

In Parliament earlier this month, Senior Minister of State (Transport) Lam Pin Min said that the LTA has served around 1,000 notices for dockless bicycles that were parked illegally. 

There are about 30,000 shared bikes in operation now, and Dr Lam said the authority is working with the three bike-sharing firms here — oBike, Mobike and ofo — to moderate their growth as a way to curb indiscriminate parking.

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