Parliament: Mandatory registration of e-scooters from second half of 2018

E-scooter users will have to register their devices from the second half of this year (2018) as the Government tries to rein in reckless riders. Senior Minister of State (Transport) Dr. Lam Pin Min said in Parliament on Wednesday (7^th March) that the Government had accepted the Active Mobility Advisory Panel's proposal last month (February) to make such registration mandatory.

The panel was formed in 2015 to develop a set of rules governing the use of footpaths and cycling paths by cyclists and Personal Mobility Device (PMD) users.

"Registering e-scooters will help deter reckless behaviour, accord more responsibility to the users, and facilitate enforcement officers in tracking down errant users," said Dr. Lam during the debate of the Transport Ministry's budget.

He added that the process of registration would be kept 'as simple and low-cost as possible'. As part of the registration process, users will have to provide their personal particulars to the authorities, as well as paste identification stickers prominently on their devices and ensure they meet the requirements of the Active Mobility Act, which include having a maximum weight of 20kg and a top speed of no more than 25km/h.

However, other PMDs such as hoverboards and electric unicycles will not require registration, as they have lower speeds and their usage is less widespread, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA). Several MPs had raised the issue of reckless riding of PMDs, with Mr. Ang Wei Neng (Jurong GRC) noting one of his resident's toes had been fractured by an e-scooter food delivery rider at Chinese Garden.

There were 110 accidents involving e-scooters in the first nine months of last year (2017).

Of these, about 30 of them took place on public paths and involved collisions between pedestrians and riders on a mobility device, while the rest took place at road junctions and on roads when users were illegally riding alongside vehicular traffic.

Responding to Mr. Zaqy Mohamad (Choa Chu Kang GRC), who raised the issue of whether the speed limits for PMDs on pathways needs to be revised, Dr. Lam said the Active Mobility Advisory Panel would look into the issue as well as other matters such as the need for an insurance and compensation framework.

"The panel will look into these issues, weighing the need for these initiatives against the impact on the large majority of responsible users, and taking into account the practices of other jurisdictions," he said, adding the panel's recommendations will be published at the end of the year (2018).

More details regarding the registration will be provided at a later date, the LTA said. The move to register e-scooters comes after a similar initiative was introduced for electric bicycles in August, aimed at enhancing enforcement against reckless riding and the use of non-compliant devices. As of January, more than 13,000 e-bikes have been registered with the LTA.