Singapore has taken up measures to reduce its carbon emissions by becoming a car-lite nation.

The Government has encouraged people to use the public transport for their commute and introduced Car-Free Sunday—i.e. cars won’t be allowed around the Central Business District and the Civic District on the last Sunday of every month, and people can explore the city by walking and cycling.

Now with bicycle-sharing firms, cycling to work or getting home from the nearest MRT station has never been this seamless.

However, with that said, it has been misused—users of this services have been parking the bicycles haphazardly or dumping them at odd places.

Or even has its wheels stolen.

My first time ever hearing about bicycle-sharing service is when I came across a cluster of bicycles in the void deck, blocking my path.

So, this has become a public nuisance to residents.

Singapore is known for three things—cleanliness, expensiveness and coming up with new rules and regulations to maintain order.

So this new initiative is like a combination of what we’re known for, no?

The LTA, NParks and 16 Town Councils have come up with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the five bicycle-sharing operators—Obike, Ofo, Mobike, Gbikes and SG Bike—to encourage responsible operation of bicycle-sharing services in public places aka park your bicycles properly.

Bicycle-sharing operators are required by LTA to remove bicycles that are indiscriminately-parked within half a day.

They will also be using geo-technology by end of the year.

This technology will ensure whether the bicycles have been parked within designated parking zones.

The operators have also agreed to share trip data with LTA, to help the planning of active mobility infrastructure and information of users will be released to the relevant enforcement in the case of accidents resulting in injury, death or property damage. They will also provide public liability insurance for users.

This also applies to shared active mobility devices like E-bikes.

The government will also help the parking situation by adding more than 4,000 yellow bicycle parking boxes.

Wait, yellow boxes?

Doesn’t it remind you of your time in NS, trying to squeeze yourself into the tiny smoking area and not cross the yellow markings?

With the introduction of more than 4,000 boxes, they will be able to accommodate 20,000 bicycles by end of 2017.

Not sure about you, but should a heavy rain occur, I’m pretty sure it won’t be a pretty sight. Maybe there’s shelter, but we’ll only know at the end of this year.

As you can tell, they are working very fast to alleviate this issue, so next time when you use one of the bicycle-sharing services, please be a dutiful rider.

Don’t be surprised if they start implementing hefty fines, cause Singapore is a “fine” city.

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This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

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Featured Image: LTA