so there you go hannes.

It is good that you are thinking of conducting safe cycling clinics to educate cyclists on how to cycle safely, I feel, based on past experiences, that it is an effective way to impart the knowledge of safe cycling on.

We are currently conducting Safe Cycling Clinics in Tampines and Pasir Ris Town and some adhoc request from primary schools. At the moment it is not a regular session but clinics will be incorporated into the grassroots events. We touch on some essential traffic rules in the clinics but not go into details. Your project sounds like an incorporation of our current clinics, so if you were to provide me with more details on the project like the date, time and place etc, we can see what we can do about it.

May I suggest you drop me an email (safecyclingsg@pacific.net.sg) with your contact number and I will see if I get back to you soon enough

Hope this helps you.

Cheers!

Steven

I would like to comment on the safe cycling clinics for pavement cycling plan you brought up. I think that it’s a great idea! As a cyclist myself, i frequently face the dilemma of not wanting to risk my safety by cycling on the road, yet pavement cycling is not legalized (i live in Sengkang Town). In the event that pavement cyclist is legalized, i would definitely be willing to attend such clinics to not only learn how to cycle safely, but also ensure the pedestrians’ safety as well as i understand their concerns about cyclists posing a threat to them on the pavements. There is a need to increase such cyclist education to assure the fears of pedestrians, and encourage both parties (cyclists and pedestrians) to give way to one another to minimize the conflict that you mentioned.

Furthermore, i would like to point out that after hearing about the ‘safe cycling guide’ you mentioned in your post above, i went on SSC website to view it as i’ve never known about its existence. Although it was a great help, being pretty long and somewhat inaccessible and not well known, i don’t think that it would be widely read by cyclists. perhaps in your project you could implement a shorter, more concise brochure or pamphlet that could be easily distributed and available to all.

All the best for your project!

I am representing a group of students from Victoria Junior College, doing a project titled ‘Reducing Conflict between Cyclists and Pedestrians’. The main aim of our project is analyse, and provide solutions to reduce the possible conflict that may occur between pedestrians and cyclists in the event that pavement cycling is legalized.

One of our solutions to reduce conflict between cyclists and pedestrians is to conduct safe cycling clinics to educate cyclists on how to cycle safely, and also be considerate on the pavements (eg. cycling at the side, not speeding). This way, pedestrians will be more at ease knowing that their safety is not compromised due to errant cyclists. As the Safe Cycling Task Force frequently conducts safe cycling clinics for cyclists on roads, we would like to seek your opinion if the Task Force would be willing to conduct safe cycling clinics for pavement cycling in the event that it is legalized.

The purpose of these clinics, in addition to teaching cyclists to cycle safely, would also be to encourage them to be considerate to pedestrians. Hence. we are also seeking help from the Singapore Sports Council in publishing Safe Cycling Guides for pavement cycling and also to encourage pedestrians to be considerate to these cyclists on pavements. These guides can be used by the Safe Cycling Task Force in conducting the clinics, and also given out to participants.

We really appreciate your help in commenting on the feasibility of our proposed idea, and indicating if the Task Force is willing to undertake this project of conducting safe cycling clinics for pavement cycling in the event of pavement cycling being legalized. Please feel free to contact us for further clarifications on our project.

Thank you very much, once again, for your help.

I agree with you second claim entirely though!

Can someone else give any clue about this topic? I thought one way to clarify is to check out cases where cyclists have been harmed by motorists, but then I think in all these cases a different law is employed, which is reckless driving etc, and the driver gets away with a relatively small punishment. And, again this is the point, this is no different from reckless car driver harming anyone else (no another vehicle).

Maybe I should make a police report when the next car cuts me and find out at a police station what law applies? I am assuming here that policemen are well-educated in cycling law…

Cheers H

The rules can be found here:
http://www.pedal.sg/pedal/Singapore_Laws.html

they do not explicitly state that a bicycle is a vehicle, it is presumed from the wording in the laws themselves.
eg for signalling:
“The rider of a bicycle shall in order to inform traffic that he intends
(a)to ‘stop’ — etc etc etc” If a bike is in traffic, it must be a vehicle, and therefore must be accorded the same rights as other vehicles.

Your colleagues’ experience in driving school reflects the (pathetic) quality of driver education here, not the laws themselves.

I have been cut off the road twice recently, in both cases by cab drivers, and in both cases the drivers told me in full confidence that bicycles are not proper vehicles, and they can be neglected by car drivers. I filed two complaints with the cab companies, but I doubt this solves the problem. I bought a helmet video camera now to capture the madness around me… at least those videos have a high entertainment value, as I found within a day using the camera…

Also, talking to colleagues who are currently in driving school, I learn that driving students are taught that bicycles are not fully accepted vehicles in Singapore. They ar tolerated, as are pedestrians, but no clear rules regarding priorities apply.

Hence, I still wonder what rules you are referring to in April when saying “We all know by Rules, bicycles are considered vehicles and they belong to the roads, this you can find in Road Traffic Act, Rules 28 (Bicycle rules)”

As I said in April, the “Road Traffic Act, Rules 28 (Bicycle rules)” did not direct me to any legislation that helps. Rule 28 of road traffic act, 276 talks about “General Licenses” (http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/non_version/cgi-bin/cgi_retrieve.pl?actno=REVED-276). Can you specify what rule you are referring to?

I would like to see the relevant Singapore legislation that gives Singapore cyclists any rights, print it out, and hand to anyone taking my priority next time.

So are there legislative texts or relevant court rulings in Singapore or not?

Hope to get some insight, best regards, Hannes

You may send your queries to safecyclesg@gmail.com and I will reply from there.

Thank you.

Steven Lim
President
Safe Cycling Task Force