SINGAPORE – The number of shared-bicycle users parking their bikes improperly has dropped significantly since regulatory measures were put in place this year, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Monday (Oct 14).

The figure is now about one in 10 shared-bike trips, down from four in 10.

Releasing the results of the latest licence application cycle for bike-sharing operators, the authority also said start-up Moov Technology will be allowed to operate a fleet of up to 10,000 bicycles upon LTA’s receipt of the licence fee, up from the 1,000 that Moov currently manages.

This is expected to bring the total number of shared bikes in Singapore to 45,000 by mid-November.

Replying to queries from The Straits Times, the LTA said Moov had demonstrated the ability to meet the licence conditions and standards of performance in the last three months, from July to September.

“It has an excellent operations plan to ensure efficient bicycle deployment and retrieval,” the authority said.

The annual licence fee for shared-bike operators is $15 a bicycle for full licences.

Two other shared-bike operators currently have licensed fleets in Singapore: Anywheel with 10,000 bikes and Mobike with 25,000, although Mobike is in the midst of transferring its licence to SGBike, a change the LTA has approved.

As for the fall in indiscriminate shared-bike parking cases this year, the authority said that since an islandwide quick response (QR) code bicycle system was launched, improper shared bicycle parking has fallen from 44 per cent of the total number of trips in January to just 13 per cent in September.

Since Jan 14, shared-bicycle riders have to look for a bicycle parking zone and scan a QR code installed at the designated area when parking their bikes.

Cyclists who fail to do so will pay a $5 fine in addition to their rental fees. If the cyclist does not comply with the shared-bicycle parking rule three times in a calendar year, he will be banned from using bicycle-sharing services for a month.

The LTA said on Monday that it will continue to review the fleet sizes of shared bicycles to ensure users’ demands are satisfied without causing undue social problems.

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