A balanced approach towards bridging the cyclist-motorist divide

Panel has made sensible proposals to improve safety on the roads

- Royston Sim

One boon of the Covid-19 pandemic is that cycling has gained in popularity both as a leisure activity and as a mode of transport.

While this development bodes well for Singapore’s aspirations to become a car-lite nation, it has also led to growing tensions between motorists and cyclists as both sides navigate the sharing of road space.

In April, the authorities announced that an advisory panel would review rules governing cyclists on the roads.

This came in the wake of a video posted on social media of errant cyclists disregarding traffic rules that prompted a flurry of calls to register all bicycles.

On Oct 1, nearly six months later, the Active Mobility Advisory Panel submitted its recommendations to Transport Minister S. Iswaran.

The next step is for the Government to respond. It is likely to accept the various proposals.

The 15-member panel’s key recommendations include:

• Not introducing regulatory regimes such as bicycle registration or licensing of cyclists;

• Limiting on-road cycling groups to five riders in single file or 10 riders when riding two abreast;

• A guideline for cyclists to keep a safe distance of about 30m between groups; and

• A guideline in the Highway Code and driving theory handbooks for motorists to give a minimum of 1.5m distance when passing cyclists on the roads.

The panel has, in my view, struck the right balance in addressing the unhappiness and tension over cyclists behaving poorly on the roads, without prescribing an excessively onerous solution like bicycle registration.