The Big Read in short: What to do with the PMD menace

Each week, TODAY’s long-running Big Read series delves into the trends and issues that matter. This week, we examine recent calls for tougher action against reckless users of personal mobility devices, such as electric scooters. This is a shortened version of the feature, which can be found here.

SINGAPORE — Despite moves in recent years to regulate motorised devices on public paths, including speed limits and compulsory registration of electric scooters, calls are mounting to beef up action against errant riders.

These motorised vehicles — or personal mobility devices (PMDs) — include electric scooters, hoverboards and electric unicycles.

Urging tougher action against reckless PMD users, Member of Parliament (MP) Lee Bee Wah, who raised the issue in the House earlier this month, said: “Some (of my residents) have even given up their daily walks because they don’t feel safe.”

On Saturday (May 25), Senior Minister of State for Transport Lam Pin Min said the Government is working with the town councils to ban PMDs from accident-prone areas within housing estates. 

Speaking to TODAY this past week, pedestrians, MPs, riders and transport experts offered a range of solutions.

SUGGESTION #1: COMPULSORY SAFE-RIDING COURSE

One suggestion was to make the Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) Safe Riding Programme compulsory.

The 90-minute course on safe-riding practices takes users through a training circuit and the rules governing PMDs.

Free until the year’s end, it is conducted in places like community clubs and schools.

How mandatory training can be done:  

• Users could be asked to show retailers a certificate of attendance before they buy a PMD, said Mr Wilson Seng, president of the PMD Retailers Association of Singapore.

• Training could lead to a licence akin to a driver’s licence, said Mr Joseph Lum, a member of The Wheelies, a unicycle enthusiast group.

• Dr Lee, an MP for the Nee Soon Group Representation Constituency, also supported licensing e-scooter riders. She said that riders should have their licences revoked if they get into accidents with pedestrians.

• Transport economist Walter Theseira said that the absence of licensing or testing was a primary concern with PMD users. “There are practically no minimum standards a user has to meet to be able to operate a PMD.”

SUGGESTION #2: CURB PMD NUMBERS

Besides being safety threats, another concern is that PMDs are choking up Singapore’s already-crowded streets.

For instance, more than 70,000 e-scooters had been registered in Singapore by April 30.

• Urban transport analyst Park Byung Joon suggested that a system similar to the Certificate of Entitlement scheme for vehicles, such as cars, could be rolled out for PMDs. Users could bid for a limited supply of certificates to own a device. This would consequently make PMD ownership more expensive.

• Associate Professor Park said limiting such motorised devices to persons with disabilities who are less mobile could also work, since they are not in large numbers. Right now, personal mobility aids, such as motorised wheelchairs, are allowed on footpaths and shared paths.

SUGGESTION #3: LIMITED BAN IN CERTAIN AREAS

Some MPs, analysts and members of interest groups supported a ban on PMDs in areas with heavy foot traffic, such as void decks of Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks and town centres.

• In Nee Soon South, Dr Lee’s constituency, riding is already disallowed in void decks and barriers have been set up to get PMD users to dismount. Some residents have felt “much safer”, she said. Under the Nee Soon Town Council by-laws of 2013, all vehicles, except wheelchairs and toy vehicles, cannot be used in void decks.

• Dr Lee said that banning PMDs in void decks and town centres would protect the young and old, and allow people to “feel safe when gathering in these areas”.

• Mr Lum suggested that PMDs could be restricted only at certain hours from areas such as void decks. Opening alternative paths will reduce users’ need to use those areas, he added.

How a limited ban can be enforced:

• Town councils, which take care of public housing estates, should consult agencies such as the LTA to align their policies not only in void decks but their surrounds, suggested Mr Denis Koh, who chairs Big Wheel Scooters Singapore, an online community of e-scooter enthusiasts.

Enforcement can be done jointly between agencies such as the LTA and the police, he said.

• Transport specialist Terence Fan said that residents could take photos of errant users and report them to the authorities.

• Mr Loh Chow Kuang, a former secretary of the Public Transport Council, said that education, warning signs, significant penalties, an enforcement team, and closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras would be needed.

• Bukit Batok MP Murali Pillai noted that the police have already fitted a number of ground-floor lift lobbies with CCTV cameras, which could be tapped for enforcement.

• Away from void decks and town centres, Dr Paul Barter, an expert in urban transport policy, suggested that the authorities identify a network of streets where vehicle speed limits could be cut to 30km/h.

• PMD and bicycle users without helmets could be allowed on these streets. Users, except for children and their adult escorts, could then be banned from footpaths wherever there are such streets or cycling paths, said Dr Barter.

SUGGESTION #4: TOTAL BAN

While most people interviewed were against an all-out ban on PMDs, some said that it could help.

How an outright ban can be rolled out:

• Users, except those with disabilities, could be given up to a year’s notice before the Government imposes a ban, to give them time to seek alternatives, said Assoc Prof Park. This will also allow time for the Government to devise a licensing scheme for persons with disabilities.

• Project manager Tan Chi Wei, 41, who was hit by an e-scooter a year ago, supports a ban, but acknowledged that it is hard to achieve immediately as “enforcement officers cannot be everywhere”. The PMDs first need to be stopped at the ports of entry before they reach the market, he said.

Why some people oppose a ban:

• For some, such as Mr Lum of The Wheelies, PMDs are a more convenient alternative to cars.

For instance, he takes his eight-year-old daughter to her primary school on an electric scooter occasionally to avoid the peak-hour traffic, saving up to 20 minutes during the journey.

• Dr Barter said that PMDs have greatly expanded users’ freedom to make trips that are inconvenient by public transport. “Banning them would harm the mobility of many thousands of people who already find them useful.”

• Assistant Professor Fan agreed, noting that PMDs are important in linking homes that are farther from public transport.

• Assoc Prof Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, chairman of the Active Mobility Advisory Panel, acknowledged the argument that PMDs have no place in Singapore since the country is so well-connected. But those who ride these devices as an alternative to driving, walking or taking public transport have found them “convenient, useful and environmentally friendly”, he said.

• Assoc Prof Faishal, who is also Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Social and Family Development, said that when used responsibly  PMDs play an important role in Singapore’s transport landscape. Most e-scooter riders are safe and responsible, for instance. “We should, therefore, not go down the path of imposing a complete ban on PMDs because of a small number of people who misuse them.”