Improving Existing Poor-quality Cycling Paths
Ministry of TransportSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns MP Patrick Tay Teck Guan’s inquiry into the Ministry of Transport’s plans to improve narrow, blocked, or disjointed cycling paths to enhance safety. Senior Parliamentary Secretary Jeffrey Siow responded that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is progressively upgrading older grey HDB cycling paths to meet the current two-metre wide red-coated standard. While connectivity gaps are being closed through phased construction, environmental constraints such as mature trees may prevent path widening in specific locations. In these areas, LTA implements safety measures including convex mirrors, speed regulating strips, and hedge trimming to improve line-of-sight and user safety. Furthermore, path markings and signage are utilized to clearly guide users and maintain segregation between cycling and pedestrian-only paths where physical expansion is unfeasible.
Transcript
71 Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Acting Minister for Transport whether the Ministry has any plans to review and improve existing poor-quality cycling paths that are disjointed, blocked or too narrow, to enhance the safety and viability of cycling, especially in respect of cycling paths that run parallel to footpaths.
Mr Jeffrey Siow: As a starting point, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) always aims to build cycling paths that are connected, wide and segregated. However, this is not always possible for various reasons. Some gaps in connectivity are temporary, because LTA is building cycling paths in stages and many gaps will be closed over time.
There are also cycling paths built in the Housing and Development Board (HDB) towns that do not meet the current guidelines today, as they carry the old typology. These are grey cycling paths, and some are narrower than the current standard, red-coated cycling paths that are 2 metres wide. LTA has progressively upgraded these grey cycling paths and are continuing to work on the upgrades. In other cases, the paths are narrower than ideal due to the lack of space, such as where we need to avoid mature trees.
Where paths cannot be widened further, LTA works with relevant agencies to implement safety measures, such as installing convex mirrors at locations with line-of-sight issues, speed regulating strips and trimming of overgrown hedges that narrow the paths. For cycling paths beside pedestrian-only paths, path marking and signs are used to guide users to stay on their respective paths.