Cyclists can use dedicated lane along road near Seletar Airport on Sunday mornings in 6-month trial: LTA

SINGAPORE — A new cycling lane that will be operational on Sunday mornings will be trailed at West Camp Road in Seletar starting Oct 16, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Wednesday (Aug 31). 

Cyclists can also ride in groups larger than those allowed on normal roads. 

LTA said in a Facebook post that the cycling lane will be demarcated by solid blue lines, and can be used by only buses and cyclists every Sunday from 5am to 11am, and will be in place for about six months.

An infographic shared by LTA shows the dedicated cycling lane on both sides of West Camp Road, which is in close proximity to Seletar Aerospace Park and Seletar Airport, an area popular with cyclists. 

Responding to queries from TODAY, LTA said on Thursday that the cycling lane trial along both sides of West Camp Road will be 4.6km. It will start and end at the junction with Seletar Aerospace Drive.

There will signs by the road to demarcate the start and end point of the Sunday Cycling Lane, LTA added.

The lanes are generally demarcated by blue lane markings, but will be demarcated by dotted blue lane markings and red transverse markings near junctions and accesses to developments. 

LTA added that West Camp Road was selected because it is a popular route for on-road cyclists, especially on Sunday mornings between 5am and 11am.

“Based on our observations, about 85 per cent of the road users between 5am to 11am on a Sunday, are cyclists,” said LTA. “There is also relatively low vehicular traffic during these hours.”

The trial at Seletar was first announced by Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Baey Yam Keng in March during the parliamentary debate on the ministry's budget.

In his parliamentary speech then, he noted cyclists' desire to cycle in larger groups after new guidelines were introduced at the start of the year to limit cycling group size on roads to enhance safety of on-road cycling. 

Cyclists can ride in groups of five in a single file and 10 when riding abreast.

In another Facebook post on Wednesday on the group Singapore Road Cycling, Mr Baey said that improvements are constantly being made to active mobility infrastructure, and that if there are cycling paths available, cyclists should cycle on them instead. 

On the dedicated lane for cyclists in the upcoming trial, he said: "This lane will allow cyclists to cycle in larger groups, allowing them more safety and security while cycling along West Camp Road.  

"Hopefully, this would help newer on-road cyclists gain confidence and allow room for practising to cycle to the far left of the road when cycling elsewhere." 

LTA added in its response to TODAY that the trial allows the authority to study if it is feasible to allocate road space for cycling according to demand.

“A part-time cycling lane, which is only operational during time periods with higher on-road cyclist volume, would facilitate vehicular traffic flow by releasing the lane during time periods with low utilisation by on-road cyclists ,” LTA said. 

There are currently at least two dedicated cycling lanes across the island. 

One of them runs on both sides of Tanah Merah Coast Road near Changi Airport, and each lane is about 10km long.

The other on-road cycling path is on Sentosa Island, measuring 4.5km.