Despite news that stiffer penalties will soon be put into place for any Personal Mobility Device (PMD) user caught riding on roads, it seems like riders are still zooming on the streets of Geylang, seemingly without a care in the world.
According to a report by The Straits Times, e-scooters and unicycles were spotted cruising on Geylang roads alongside vehicles and motorcycles around noon yesterday. Within an hour, six PMDs were seen on Geylang Road and Sims Avenue, with one particularly foolhardy individual speeding across the four lanes of Geylang Road to get ahead of the cars before the lights switched to green.
Perhaps these users weren’t aware of the harsher fines that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will enforce from Jan 15 onwards. First-time offenders will have to fork out S$300 and S$500 if caught riding on local and major roads respectively — a stark increase from the current fine of S$100 — and anyone seen riding on expressways will have to make an appearance in court.
ST also revealed that Geylang seemed to be attracting more errant PMD users than other neighborhoods, such as Yishun and Ang Mo Kio, where riders kept to pavements and cycling paths.
In support of LTA’s tougher actions, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Associate Professor Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, who heads the Active Mobility Advisory Panel, told ST that he has personally attempted to stop and advise errant PMD riders. But the responses he gets are often negative, with people continuing to ride along the road despite his word of caution.
According to data from the LTA, an average of 40 errant PMD users were nabbed on the roads each month in 2017 — a hike from 34 in 2016.
