Lowering Speed Limit for Bicycles on Shared Paths to Enhance Safety

12 Ms Gho Sze Kee asked the Acting Minister for Transport whether the Ministry would consider lowering the speed limit for bicycles on shared paths from the current 25 km/h for the safety of other path users.

The Minister of State for Transport (Mr Baey Yam Keng) (for the Acting Minister for Transport): The speed limit of 25 kilometres per hour for bicycles as well as other active mobility devices on shared paths is based on normal cycling speed and takes into account the rules of shared used and the safety of all users. Cyclists should slow down and give way to pedestrians, especially when approaching crowded places.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will continue to ensure path safety and conduct education campaigns and community engagement programmes regularly to promote gracious path sharing and safe behaviour.

Mr Speaker: Ms Gho.

Ms Gho Sze Kee (Mountbatten): Speaker, I have two supplementary questions for the Minister of State. To put things into perspective, 25 kilometres per hour would be about seven metres per second, and about 14 to 15 seconds for every 100 metres. That is roughly the speed of a very fit and casual jogger, somewhat like Mr Speaker, when you are running at full throttle. So, imagine that, Mr Speaker, the momentum of a bicycle. And this is what pedestrians, especially the elderly staying in Mountbatten and perhaps in other areas of Singapore, are facing right now.

So, in light of this, I will ask this question. Would the Minister of State not consider bicycles at that speed on a path shared by the elderly, young children and adults walking their pets, to be reckless as well? Should we not consider lowering the speed as a deterrent measure, as opposed to enforcement and education, especially when a lower speed limit will improve reaction time and safety?

Mr Speaker: Minister of State Baey. He is a faster runner. [Laughter.]

Mr Baey Yam Keng: Thank you, Speaker, but even then, I do not run at 25 kilometres an hour.

I thank Ms Gho for her concern for the more vulnerable users on our paths. But I would like to explain that this speed limit of 25 kilometres an hour was derived by the Active Mobility Advisory Panel after extensive consultations with different users of our paths. So, the 25 kilometres an hour is for shared paths, which tend to be wider and allows for pedestrians or slow-moving users to keep to one side, which means to the left of the path, to allow for faster-moving device users to overtake them. So, if the users adhere to this code of conduct, we do allow the different users travelling at different speeds to co-exist harmoniously and safely.

In areas where the paths are narrower – those are what we call footpaths – the speed limit has been lowered to 10 kilometres an hour. And on these paths, devices which are motorised cannot be used. That means, only manual bicycles could be used, as well as for users of personal mobility aids. That means, these are for people with mobility issues.

We will continue to observe, monitor the situation; and where necessary, we could look at revising the rules on the speeds.

Mr Speaker: Mr Dennis Tan.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang): I do agree with the views expressed by the hon Ms Gho. I am respectfully of the view that I think 25 kilometres per hour, aside from those on road bikes, would be more appropriate for bicycle speed on the road rather than on a shared path. I think most bicycles, other than road bikes, do not travel as much as that speed on shared paths or even on the roads.

And I have a separate supplementary question. Mr Speaker, since 2017, when the Active Mobility Act was passed, I have said repeatedly in this House that to promote a safe and considerate riding culture, we need to have regular enforcement and adequate public education for all users, including cyclists.

Recently, the Minister of State mentioned that riders could, where necessary, overtake pedestrians on a shared lane by riding into the pedestrian-only lanes – if I hear him correctly from the last Sitting. I am concerned that this may be dangerous, especially riding at a higher speed of say, 20 to 25 kilometres per hour. So, may I ask Minister of State, how extensive are the current public education efforts being carried on the ground, that is, on the shared paths, especially the popular shared paths, to regulate use of all users of shared paths, including advising them to lower their speed, and can these ground outreach efforts be further enhanced?

Mr Baey Yam Keng: LTA has rolled out public education campaigns since 2016. We reach out to community groups, schools, and this is important because we want users to develop good habits from young. So, yes, we will continue to reach out to as many groups as possible and targeting areas where there has been a lot of feedback or more observed higher speeds of cycling in those areas. We could work with grassroots, with resident groups, communities to do the outreach.

I would also like to emphasise that the speed limit is the maximum speed allowed. It is not the speed at which device users and cyclists should expect to sustain for any distances. So, when the path is crowded, there are obstacles in front, a slower-moving device or user in front, they should slow down and give way to them. That is the expectation. And if there are cases where riders or cyclists had been reckless, they will be taken to task.

I will just make a clarification to Mr Dennis Tan's supplementary question. When I said earlier, at a previous Sitting about allowing device users to overtake, these are for cases where there is a pedestrian-only path beside a cycling path. There is no pedestrian-only path beside a shared path. Just wanted to explain the difference in the way we design our infrastructure.

Mr Speaker: Last supplementary question, Mr Cai Yinzhou.

Mr Cai Yinzhou (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Thank you, Speaker. I would like to inquire on how, with footpaths being narrow, cyclists may be elderly themselves and navigating these obstacles, like running children or dog walkers, may be challenging for them as well. So, cyclist speed may not be the only factor of danger, but also the ability of these cyclists to navigate these obstacles.

My supplementary question is whether the Ministry will consider cycling pathways to be designed to co-exist on the road, especially in areas with high density of pedestrians or vulnerable individuals, like schools or silver zones.

Mr Baey Yam Keng: Due to the space constraints, especially on road infrastructure, we do not build cycling paths on roads. Having said that, cyclists and device users can cycle on and can ride on the roads. This is allowed. And so, our approach has been building cycling infrastructure off roads. As I said earlier, where it is possible, we will separate the cycling paths and pedestrian-only paths. When the space is more limited, then we will have shared paths. And when it is even more limited, it will be just footpaths, and on footpaths, there are restrictions on what kind of devices could be used on those.

So, in order to allow for different users of our spaces to co-exist safely and harmoniously, we really need to build a culture of sharing, of gracious use of these spaces, and for everybody to understand the rules and abide by the rules. At the same time, we will carry out enforcement and take errant users to task for unsafe behaviours.