Dealing with Complaints of Reckless Behaviour of PMD Users

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Transport whether the Ministry receives complaints and feedback on reckless behaviour of PMD users for near-misses or accidents and, if so, what process is undertaken by the Ministry when it receives such complaints and feedback.

Mr Speaker, members of public have been providing feedback on near misses or reckless behaviour of active mobility device users to LTA through phone hotlines, online feedback forms, social media and mobile apps like MyTransport.SG or OneService. LTA also receives feedback from Members of Parliament as well as community and industry stakeholders. Persons involved in such accidents should immediately file a report with the Police.

LTA carefully assesses all feedback to determine the follow-up actions required. LTA also uses such information to enhance its enforcement, public education and engagement efforts. For example, such feedback helps LTA to identify the hotspots to determine the appropriate enforcement efforts. LTA also shares the information with the relevant Active Mobility Patrol teams so that they can patrol the area more frequently to engage the community and distribute educational materials.

I have one supplementary question. May I know under what conditions, that is, how severe the situation has to be in terms of number and severity of accidents before the Ministry will consider banning PMDs on pavements or footpaths, which France had just done. Many of my elderly residents, when they walk on the park connectors, they do not feel safe anymore. Not just the elderly, in fact, a lot of residents when they meet me in the park connectors, they just feel it is so dangerous, so I hope the Senior Minister of State can consider tougher actions against errant riders.

Mr Speaker, I understand the Member's concern about safety of pedestrians, especially of her residents. I do share the same concern as well.

If you take a step back and look at the entire landscape, footpaths form a significant part of our connectivity network, connecting from point A to point B; from homes to places of work; places of schooling as well as recreation. And if we do disallow active mobility devices on footpaths, basically, what it means is that active mobility users would have to operate on roads. That actually poses more risks to both the Active Mobility users and other vehicles including motorbikes, cars, lorries, trucks, or even buses. We all understand that the severity of injuries should an accident happen on the roads can be even more serious and fatalities more likely. This is the reason why AMAP, after extensive public and stakeholders' consultation, had recommended to allow active mobility devices to be used on footpaths.

Banning the use of active mobility devices on footpaths is actually not the solution. We do agree that active mobility plays an important role in our vision to making Singapore a car-lite society. We should instead cultivate a culture of graciousness, responsibility and respect in sharing the use of our common space.

The Senior Minister of State earlier mentioned that there are many ways that a report can be made about accidents or near miss accidents. I would like to ask Senior Minister of State that during the last six months, how many reports of feedback has LTA received and compare with the previous six months. Is there an increasing trend? What is the trend?

I would like to thank Er Dr Lee Bee Wah for the clarification. I do not have the exact figures but based on what I have shared in previous parliamentary sessions, there is indeed an increase in the number of feedback received as well as the number of accidents over the past six months. Therefore, we are stepping up our effort in public education, stepping up enforcement action as well as implementing the registration regime for e-scooters. The mandatory e-scooter registration regime will be in force from 1 July 2019.