Singapore's bike-sharing companies have expressed their intentions to hold a dialogue with Land Transportation Authority (LTA) regarding indiscriminate parking of shared bikes in certain places. Amid thousands of parking violations committed by bike riders across the city state, stricter policies will soon be in place.
Mobike, oBike and Ofo have come together to propose to LTA and the People's Action Party's (PAP) 15 town councils to discuss this parking violation of shared bikes along the highways, bus stops and other non-designated areas. According to Channel News Asia, the concerned companies are planning to develop an app for Singaporeans to use in reporting unlawful bike riders.
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On top of that, a common response time among the companies is also considered so seize illegally parked bicycles. Geo-fencing has also been discussed by the operators, hoping to deliver them by the end of the year.
Geofencing technology uses GPS or RFID to enable a software to detect a car and other devices when leaving or entering a specific area. According to Mobike's country manager Sharon Meng, the geo-fencing technology is already being tested, and licensing should come afterward.
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"It's really about how we manage our operations and how we use technology to solve the problems we are seeing at the moment," says Meng.
These new rules are expected to be announced soon.
Singapore's bike-sharing community currently has around 30,000 bikes with more expected as SG Bike joins the fray.
