“A plan to cover the city with cycleways gathers momentum – as cyclists wear flourescent Lycra, rack bikes on ferries and overtake cars.”

“On roads, cyclists and drivers have been exchanging stares and shouts. Horns and bells have faced off. The bells, it seems, are subtly more powerful/”

“City of Sydney Council is creating 200 kilometers of cycleways and turning the city into a cycling Utopia.”

“The target is for 10 percent of all city trips to be made by bike (presently at one percent) to reduce car journeys by 4.3 million annually.”

It’s an extended article, covering a wide range of topics, including rules of road usage, groups that one can join, obstacles along the way, and the bike movement sweeping Sydney.

All that just makes me jealous. Sydney, like Singapore, is basically a big city, where parking is a pain, bus lanes are commonplace, and there’s hardly any space along some roads for vehicles to get by. There are over 4 million residents in Sydney, most of the population is staying within city limits. People are as fast-paced as any city I’ve ever been to, Singapore included.

Drawing inspiration from an article in SPIN Asia (Pg 3. SPIN Asia is available all over Singapore for a mere $3!) titled “Singapore Through a Brommie’s Eyes – A Stroll Through the Lion City on a Brompton Breathes New Lift Into Familiar Sights.”

In the article, the writer explains how thanks to the foldability of the Brompton, you can now travel much longer distances on a bicycle. The folded dimensions falls under the legal size limit of folding bikes under the LTA’s Permanent Folding Bike Scheme.

If, like me, you get a bit tired when all you see are words,  I took the liberty of giving you the cliff notes:

General Guidelines:

• Foldable bicycles should be folded at all times in the MRT/LRT stations, bus interchanges/terminals and on trains and buses.
• Cyclists should use the lifts and wide fare gates at MRT/LRT stations where these are available.
• Foldable bicycles are allowed during the following operating hours:
  • Mondays to Fridays: 9.30am to 4pm, 8pm to end of operating hours
  • All day on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays
• Generally ensure that your bike doesn’t hurt anyone, or impede traffic in and out of carriages, or dirty the place
• Strangely, only one bike per bus (I’m not sure how they are going to enforce this)
• Foldable bikes have to fit into the little box that all stations have at the gantries (see below)

There are also other points, like how they came to decide on the details of the scheme, which you, dear reader, should read on your own time.

Given this scheme, I wonder how it is that I have never met anyone with a foldable bicycle in the train on my way to work (which happens during off-peak periods). If anyone’s ever made use of this scheme, drop me a line with a self-portrait of you with your bicycle in the train/bus. I’ll add your picture onto this blogpost. You’ll be famous!

Cycling as an alternative mode of transport has its perks both environmentally as well as to an individual’s health. Given Singapore’s small size, why then don’t we cycle everywhere? Well, I can think of 3 main problems why people who are keen to cycle don’t (Note: this does not address the people that DO NOT see cycling as an alternative mode of transport):

1. Singapore’s Climate – Hot and wet all year round. It would be lovely if the weather was cool and dry and it would be perfect for cycling but sadly we either perspire from the heat or get soaked from the rain and in both of these situations they serve only to dampen any plans to go to work, shop, watch a movie or even have a meal.
2. Lack of facilities and cycling infrastructure – Let’s say I do want to cycle. Where am I supposed to park my bike? My bike isn’t a Pinarello (I hear it is the Ferrari of bicycles) but it is a road bike which I wouldn’t want to park just anywhere with a lock. How many offices encourage cycling by allowing employees to park their bikes in the office and provide shower facilities for their employees? That is just the logistical portion of attempting to cycle to work. Let’s not forget how we have to jostle with motorist for road space, maybe I am misusing the word jostle because we can’t really jostle with a car or even a motorbike. Apart from signs along the roads that warn motorist of cyclist (which are not everywhere), we have pretty much zero infrastructure that promotes or encourages cycling.
3. No official rules – There are no clear cut rules for cyclist, I believe there is some form of etiquette but as a cyclist, our etiquette largely revolves around how best not to get run over.

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I propose the following to best encourage and promote cycling in Singapore:

1. Designated Cycling Routes – I’m not asking that all roads be changed to accommodate cyclist. Just a couple of roads into and in the major areas like CBD or Orchard Road with a merger of various routes from housing areas. I’m sure almost all cyclist wouldn’t mind a detour for a substantially safer route. Over time and with experimentation, we can implement various forms of infrastructure along these routes that serve not only to promote and encourage cycling but also to protect the cyclist.
2. Cycling Facilities – Since we are unable to control the weather to make it cool and dry, we can only better prepare for it. Tapping on our extensive, state-of-the-art mass rapid transit (MRT) network, I propose planning the cycling routes in tandem with this network. Imagine a cycling route that goes from Yishun to Raffles Place and every couple of stations having a bicycle parking facility with showers. If it rains, I just duck into the nearest MRT station to utilize the parking facilities and showers and hop on a train to get to work or whatever else I was planning to do and after I am done, I just hop on a train back to the stop I parked my bike and cycle home.
3. Education – This is probably one of the most important ways to make this safe. Make cyclist go through a basic course to teach them what to do and what not to do on the roads, similar to a basic theory course for driving. Most importantly, educate motorist of how to look out for cyclist and the various signals a cyclist would use to indicate their intentions to turn, stop, etc etc. Also do make it clear to motorist that cyclist (although slower than a motor vehicle) do have the same amount of rights to the roads as them. If you have time read the comments here, as a cyclist, I find this worrying and I sure hope they do not represent the majority of motorist in Singapore.

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I read somewhere that the number of women who cycle in a city is a good representation of how cycle-friendly a city is and I am pretty sure a plan like this if implemented right could increase our cycling rate and make Singapore more bicycle friendly.