New bike-sharing company SG Bike aims to target indiscriminate parking

Another bicycle-sharing firm entered the fray as the fourth such company to officially launch here, and with a new way to curb indiscriminate parking of shared bicycles.

The local entrant, SG Bike, differentiates itself from the competition by having users park around a device called a 'geostation'. The geostation emits a radio-frequency identification (RFID) field that recognises if SG Bike bicycles are parked around them.

The field's radius ranges from 5m to 25m around each geostation, and the parking zone is marked by a painted yellow box. The range in geostations at Housing Board void decks is 5m. If a bicycle is parked outside the zone, it will emit an alarm sound and the user's app will notify him to move the bike into the zone, or else he will face a penalty fee. The Straits Times understands that the fee, yet to be decided, will range between $2 and $5.

It costs $1 to rent a bicycle for 30 minutes, with overtime users charged on a per-minute basis. Users who get an SG Bike account can unlock the bicycles with their phones, a card mailed to them, or their own ez-link cards.

Indiscriminate parking of shared bicycles by users has been an issue in recent months after the introduction of such bikes this year by three bike sharing companies - ofo, oBike and MoBike. The two-wheelers, which are typically unlocked using a mobile app and do not have to be returned to fixed docking stations, have been strewn on footpaths and at the exits of private condominium estates, Land Transport Authority (LTA) officers said in a report in June.

In July, Senior Minister of State for Transport Lam Pin Min said in Parliament that the bike-sharing companies will have to moderate the growth of shared bicycles. There are about 30,000 such bikes. He said that the Government will work with these companies to ensure the population of bicycles is 'commensurate with the availability of public parking places'.

"This is to prevent excessive indiscriminate parking, as well as disamenities to the public," he said, noting that LTA had served around 1,000 notices for illegally parked bicycles at the time. The operators are given half a day to remove them, after which the bicycles are impounded. Dr. Lam said that LTA has been coordinating with other Government agencies and town councils to 'align the approach against indiscriminate parking of shared bicycles'.

As for SG Bike's new bicycle-sharing service, it is limited to Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council for now, and there will be around 300 bicycles and geostations in places such as MRT stations, Housing Board blocks and bus stops there by the end of the month.

Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Minister for Transport, and Dr. Teo Ho Pin, Mayor of North West Community Development Council, were the guests of honour at the opening ceremony of the bicycle-sharing service at Block 124, Pending Road