To improve first-and-last-mile connectivity and encourage cycling for short trips, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) had called a tender in July 2016 for an operator to build, own, operate and maintain a bicycle-sharing system in Jurong Lake District. To defray part of the costs, tenderers could bid for grants from LTA.  The experiences of docked bicycle-sharing programmes in cities such as London and Taipei have been that they typically require public sector funding for sustainability.

2.  The tender closed in December 2016 and attracted a total of 13 bids from local and foreign participants. The proposals were a mix of both docked and dockless bicycle-sharing systems.

3.  Since the beginning of this year, however, several fully privately-funded dockless bicycle-sharing services have emerged in Singapore. These operators have plans to roll out many thousands of shared-bicycles and expand their operations to more locations over the next one to two years.

4.  LTA has therefore reassessed its bicycle-sharing plans, and decided not to award the Jurong Lake District bicycle-sharing tender.  The ongoing plans by the private dockless bicycle-sharing system operators have obviated the need for a government-run system backed by government grants. The price proposals submitted by all 13 participants of the tender will be unopened.

5.  LTA will continue to monitor developments in the bicycle-sharing landscape, and introduce new plans if necessary.

Managing Indiscriminate Parking of Bicycles

6.  LTA would like to remind all users and bicycle-sharing system operators that bicycles must be parked in designated parking spaces, and must not cause any inconvenience, obstruction, or danger to others. Dockless bicycle-sharing system operators in particular should remind their users not to park their bicycles indiscriminately, and should also put in place penalties and incentives to encourage the proper behaviour. They should remove any indiscriminately parked bicycles or derelict bicycles expeditiously, whenever alerted by the public or any government agencies. Strict enforcement action will be taken against all indiscriminately parked bicycles. This includes impounding of the bicycles and heavy fines, including against dockless bicycle-sharing system operators, and if necessary, regulatory action as well.