As announced last year, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will tighten the technical requirements for power-assisted bicycles (PABs) and impose stricter penalties for those who sell and use non-compliant PABs. These measures are intended to improve safety for PAB users and for other road users, including pedestrians.

2   From 1 February 2016, PABs need to comply with new requirements that are aligned with European Standard EN15194^[1] in order to be approved and sealed with the new orange seal.

3   The revised technical requirements are aligned with the European standards and specify safety requirements such as those for electric circuits, batteries, power management and maximum power. Only PABs that adopt the revised requirements and weigh no more than 20kg will be type approved and be affixed with a seal for use on public roads. The standard is applied in 33 countries across Europe and in Australia. Please refer to Annex A for more details on the revised technical requirements.

4   Members of the public who are buying PABs should look out for the new orange seal which will be affixed to PABs that meet the revised technical requirements. PABs that have been approved under the current requirements and affixed with a blue seal will still be allowed for use on public roads.

5   More information on PABs can be found at LTA’s OneMotoring website at https://onemotoring.lta.gov.sg/content/onemotoring/home/buying/vehicle-types-and-registrations/PAB.html
 

^[1] LTA will be adopting the EN15194 standards, except for the optional start-up assistance mode permitted under EN15194. The start-up assistance mode allows the rider to move at a maximum speed of 6km/h without pedalling. However, depending on the design, this feature may be illegally modified to allow the PAB to travel faster than 6km/h and without pedalling, and hence pose a safety concern.  As such, LTA will not type approve PABs with start-up assistance mode.