There’s a whole gamut of issues showing up in the forum page these days, ranging from HDB Cash Over Valuations, NS enlistment dates, service levels among taxi drivers, airport terminals and airliners.
One issue that’s been long running though is the use of cyclists on pavements. I haven’t been keeping a record of the number of letters published on this in the last year, but I’m guessing it should be in the dozens by now. Two published letters on THURS went like this (snippets only, and formatted to save space):
Sharing of footpaths: An accident waiting to happen
I have two children aged two and four and almost every time I use footpaths in Tampines, I encounter cyclists travelling at high speed. When I use footpaths in other places, I do not see so many cyclists, from which I conclude that the trial promotes cycling and is a success.
However, when cyclists share a footpath with pedestrians, a situation is created where an accident is bound to occur. Which parent can control his young children all the time? If a cyclist comes from behind me (often you cannot hear them coming) and my children are running around, an accident can easily occur.
And from another reader who’s apparently giving up:
Why footpath sharing is an insoluble problem
IT SEEMS to me, as a pedestrian and cyclist, that constant public grouses over several years about cyclists on footpaths are getting us nowhere.
Negligence or carelessness by cyclists is hard to report, with identification of culprits impossible without licences. The law as it stands is practically unenforceable, and the minuscule fine unprohibitive.
While I work in the Tampines area, I don’t get much of an outdoor view of the precinct, so I can’t say for sure how bad the problem is. But if Sengkang – a precinct that isn’t in this trial scheme where cyclists and pedestrians share footpaths – is any indication, I can only guess how much worst is the problem in Tampines then.
I think many Singaporeans like myself are also witnesses to or maybe even victims of near misses caused by cyclists going up and down footpaths.
And for those of us who don’t experience this possibly uniquely-Singapore sight… a lot of times the offending cyclists aren’t young adult speed demons who’re getting their F1 fix on footpaths. They’re often ah peks or old aunties riding on bicycles with huge grocery baskets at the front of their bikes, or mothers with school children riding behind them.
I sure don’t know too if the ringing bell sounded by cyclists speeding is of any help: if I don’t hear them and the cyclist zooms past me, I get a heart attack. If I hear it ringing suddenly behind my back, I’ll also get a heart attack LOL.
Honestly, I’m torn between both sides even though I don’t ride bicycles anymore outside the rare occasion when the both of us are at East Coast Park, or (somehow) at Pulau Ubin again (Matt wrote a hilarious post on our little cycling expedition there last year in May). Singapore roads are dangerous, not very wide, and many drivers aren’t respectful or especially sensitive to cyclists. But on the other end is the huge danger of pedestrians colliding with cyclists on paths that simply are not designed or intended for cycling.
I’d think it’s possible in theory for cyclists and pedestrians to coexist on footpaths: and that is for cyclists to travel below a speed limit, for them to push rather than ride their bikes on congested footpaths, and for incident traceability to be instituted when accidents inevitably happen.
Yep, it’s a tall order which I unfortunately don’t see happening anytime soon. How would you make cyclists travel below a speed limit (put speed delimiters on their bikes programmed based on riding surfaces?), what defines a ‘congested footpath’, and does the Ministry of Transport want another registration system for bicycles owners?
Like the writer above, I’m dreading the eventuality when a cyclist finally collides with a pedestrian resulting in either severe injuries or a fatality for the whole thing to be shaken upside down, and for authorities to finally resolve this issue once and for all. Either create new separate paths for cyclists, or (somehow) demarcate existing footpaths to separate pedestrian from cyclist. Or legislate the thing, make the rules very clear, institute the traceability systems, and then send the cyclist offenders to jail.
But injuries would had been caused then, and fatalities potentially caused – and that’s an expensive price to pay when all the warning signs are already ringing for persons to react to.
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