Bicycle-sharing company Ofo recently set up 25 parking zones for two-wheelers in the city centre and the western part of Singapore. The zones in Marina Bay Sands, Suntec City and Jurong West were launched yesterday. Another 400 more will be launched in high-traffic areas such as Orchard and Tanglin, and neighbourhoods, such as Novena, Queenstown and Jurong East, in the coming months.

The initiative stems from a growing demand for parking zones near bus stops and drop-off points, Ofo said. The zones will be demarcated as bright-yellow boxes, and are open to shared and personal bikes. Ofo said it hopes that with designated bike parking zones, issues related to indiscriminate parking will be mitigated.

Its Head of Asia Pacific business, Mr. Lawrence Cao, said, "As we add more LTA-approved bike parking zones across Singapore, we believe (these) will drive more responsible biking practices, and ultimately help to propel the Government's vision for Singapore to become a car-lite city." The indiscriminate parking of shared bicycles has become a problem of late, with cyclists not using designated parking areas.

Two weeks ago, new bicycle-sharing firm SG Bike said it will be using 'geofencing' to push cyclists to park their two-wheelers within a set physical boundary, or risk a fine. Cyclists have to park their bikes around a device called a 'geostation', which emits a radio frequency identification field that recognises the firm's bicycles parked nearby. If a user parks the bicycle outside the zone at the end of use, a device on the bike will emit an alarm, and the user's app will notify him to move the bike into the zone, or be penalised.

Ofo said its own geofencing system is scheduled to be launched by the year end. In July, 70 shared bicycles were impounded by the Land Transport Authority (LTA). On its Facebook page, the LTA said the bikes were impounded because they were parked indiscriminately and not removed within the notice period. As of early last month, the number of bikes impounded this year stood at 278. Ofo said it works closely with the public to get bike misuse or abuse reported on its Facebook page and mobile app.