LTA Putting More CCTVs at Hotspots To Catch Errant E-bike Riders


Advertisements
 

Do you know what CCTV is?

Some would say it’s closed-circuit television camera, while others might point towards the predominant Chinese state television broadcaster, China Central Television.

Or 中国中央电视台, if you understand Mandarin.

Image: Wikipedia

Surveillance, media propaganda, different sides of the same state-machinery coin, or lens should I say?

For the purpose of this article though, CCTV is defined as the former, and quip will I that it actually means See-See TV as well.

Image: Wikipedia

In any case, you get my point; CCTVs are generally used for surveillance, detecting or deterring bad people like cats eaters or dogs drinkers at large, and Singapore will see a whole a lot more of them later this year.

Errant Cyclists & PMD Users Beware

According to The New Paperless, “Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras will soon be installed at hotspots where reckless riding and other personal mobility device (PMD) offences are prevalent.”

One such hotspot according to this article, is Geylang, and surprisingly, not Yishun, considering how its supposed to be the fall-guylocation for every bad thing that has ever happened in Singapore.

These CCTVs will complement the Land Transport Authority’s existing suite of enforcement efforts to catch errant cyclists and PMD riders, according to Senior Minister of State for Transport Lam Pin Min, and will be rotated across these hotspot locations during the trial.

In response to TNP’s queries, LTA shared that hotspots are selected based on public feedback and ground observations by LTA’s active mobility enforcement officers.

A LTA spokesman said: “We will review the trial to determine if the CCTV footage and video analytics software can detect active mobility offences such as speeding. More details on the trial will be available later this year.”

A huge rise in incidences

This announcement comes at an opportune time as off-road accidents involving active mobility users spiked from 132 in 2017 to 250 last year, an almost 100% increase.

That’s not all.

Since the Active Mobility Act (AMA) came into effect in May last year,  more than 2,900 offences have been detected, including unsafe riding on paths and riding of non-compliant devices.

Under the AMA, all bicycles, PMDs and power-assisted bicycles cannot exceed 20kg in weight, 70cm in width, and 25kmh, if motorised.

The 25kmh though, only applies to shared paths like park connectors, while the limit on footpaths was just lowered to 10kmh in February.


Advertisements
 

Timely, seeing as to how there have been so many PMD accidents of late.

Guess this means a damn-hard e-brake on the motorised-bandwagon.

#sawitcomingdidntwe

Image: Roads.sg

Stupidity not included (that’s an e-bike, not motorbike).