Campaign to Remind Pedestrians not to Use Mobile Phones and Electronic Devices While on the Roads

15 Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Minister for Transport whether LTA will consider a continuous nationwide education campaign to remind pedestrians not to use their mobile phones or any other electronic devices when using the roads.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport (Mr Baey Yam Keng) (for the Minister for Transport): Mr Deputy Speaker, the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Traffic Police (TP) and Singapore Road Safety Council (SRSC) engage in extensive public education programmes and campaigns on path and road safety. This includes reminding pedestrians to stay alert to their surroundings when walking along paths and crossing the road.

LTA has been promoting to path users the message of staying alert through various public campaigns and educational materials, such as the annual Move Happy Campaign. LTA also works with our Active Mobility Community Ambassadors and schools to educate pedestrians and students on safe and gracious path use, including not using mobile phones and electronic devices when crossing the road.

Likewise, TP regularly conducts education and engagement programmes. As part of the Road Safety Month campaign in June 2022, TP produced infographics and video advisories to educate the public on pedestrian safety and the dangers of distracted crossing and jaywalking. In August 2022, TP organised the Road Safety Concert for Seniors to raise road safety awareness and to inculcate good road safety habits among the seniors.

These educational efforts are ongoing and we remain committed to inculcating a strong culture of safety and graciousness among all road and path users.

Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Lim Biow Chuan. Incidentally, we will go up to 1.40 pm for Question Time today because Leader's speech at the start took up 10 minutes. So, we have another 10 minutes up to 1.40 pm.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan (Mountbatten): Grateful, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir. I just wanted to ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary whether LTA agrees that there are more pedestrians involved in traffic accidents and whether the current level of road safety education is adequate.

Just last month, the Courts made a pronouncement about the pedestrian who was knocked down because he followed jaywalkers blindly while crossing the road, and he was just looking at the phone. So, situations like that, and anecdotally I get a lot of feedback that drivers see that road users are not paying attention to cars at all. They are all looking at their phone, listening to their music. If this carries on, there would be more traffic accidents.

So, I was just wondering whether the Ministry of Transport (MOT) thinks the level of education of pedestrians is adequate. Many drivers tell me that they feel it is not enough and that the road safety message should be pushed further.

Mr Baey Yam Keng: Indeed, I agree with the Member, because a life lost is a life too much, too many. We want to prevent all casualties or fatalities arising from such accidents.

But we also realised that when accidents happen, there could be a variety of reasons. Sometimes, it is a combination of reasons, where the pedestrian, the motorists and/or other road and path users are also responsible.

Therefore, we would take a more holistic approach towards addressing this issue. Public education is one and this has to be targeted at all road and path users. LTA will work with Traffic Police and the Road Safety Council on this.

At the same time, we also look at how we can improve road designs or enhance features such as Silver Zones and the recently announced "Friendly Streets" programme to make it safer for pedestrians to cross the roads.

All in all, we hope that all these will help to reduce incidences of accidents. More importantly, everybody must play a part in ensuring safety on roads and our paths.