The document proposes ideas to make roads safer for all users including cyclists and pedestrians in Singapore. It suggests improving road infrastructure such as reducing lane width to lower speeds, marking bicycle signs on bus lanes, and designing junctions better. Education and law enforcement are also important to address unsafe behaviors. The goal is to facilitate safe driving which benefits all road users.

1. Safe road for all
feedback to LTA (This is a work-in-progress file)
Date shared with LTA: 2012-07-02 (last updated 2012-08-24)
Compiled by: LovecyclingSG
contact: chu.francis@gmail.com / taiwoon@gmail.com
Safety first, speed follows

2. LoveCyclingSg who we are
● We are a group of normal people who love
cycling in Singapore (2000 members on FB)
● Many of us also drive
● Riding our bicycles, we discovered there are
many opportunities to make cycling safer,
which also benefits drivers and pedestrians
● Examples of our effort:
○ Open-map to identify hazard roads
○ Measuring lane width to identify opportunities
safer driving and safe space for cycling
○ Education on safe cycling practice during our rides

3. Land Transport includes walking &
cycling (principle)
● No car trip is completed without walking. At
the end of a car/bus/train trip, all of us need
to walk to the destination.
● Planning and designing for walking/cycling is
as important as planning for driving.
● We look to LTA to provide for the safe and
seamless movement of all Land Transport,
both motorized and non-motorized transport.

4. 3 legged stool of Safe Roads
Safe Roads for walker, biker, driver
Infrastructure Law
90% ensured Deal with dangerous
Natural safe behaviour with
behaviour sufficient deterrence
Education
10% unclear situation
Faster, heavier vehicle give way to
slower, lighter vehicle

5. 3 legs stool of Safe Roads
Principle: Walker, cyclist, drivers are all land transport users. LTA has the responsibility to ensure safe and
efficient movement of all road users.
1) Infrastructure:
Improve road design to facilitate safe behaviour , and to discourage dangerous behaviour. (aim for 90%
NATURAL safe driving, cycling and walking)
2) Mutual understanding (Education)
Principal: operator of more dangerous vehicle give way to less dangerous one.
Communicate to all road users the "good practice" of safe use of roads. Ideally there should be minimum rules
and regulations. (aim to clarify the remaining 10% of what should be the safe behaviour)
3) Law
Under the above provision, if someone still behave dangerously, the law should be strong enough to punish
wrong doer. More dangerous vehicle operator should bare higher responsibility if accident happen. The
assumption is the operator of more dangerous vehicle is at fault until it prove not.
Strategy:
Phase 1. Low hanging fruits: Change should first targeted at low cost, easy to implemented ideas that provides
advantage to all users.
Phase 2. Get used to it. After the first phase changes, wait for the users to get used to the new situation. collect
feedback and prepare for more improvement.
Phase 3. Implement improvement.

6. Safety (perceived & actual) is the
major concern for choosing cycling
● Too many close calls
● ~18 cyclists killed per year
● All sharebike users who withdrawn stated
road safety is the main concern
● Car kills, bicycles will not. Design to facilitate
"Safe driving" is by far more important than
"Safe cycling".

7. Frustrated driver is dangerous
● It is frustrating to drive in a Rush-Stop-Rush
pattern. It is better to drive gradually 20-40-
20kmh. The moderate driving pattern is
safer, less noisy, less polluted and feels
more pleasant.
● Average car speed is 28 kmh in CBD area,
this can be achieved without R-S-R driving

8. Idea to make cycling safer (1)
● Speeding - it is illegal, design roads to moderate
car speed, not to encourage speeding.
● A frustrated driver is a dangerous driver, reduce
rush-stop-rush driving pattern.
● Add a bicycle sign on Bus lane
● Mark small roads "share" for car and bicycles

9. Idea to make cycling safer (2)
● At junction, cyclist going straight, drivers intends to turn
left: Paint "protected lane" to signal driver should give
way to cyclist.
● at multi-lane one way street, cyclist need to cut across
several lane in order to turn right. We need a better
design here.
● Cycling is allowed in Bus lane, but not all Bus driver
recognize that. Paint a bicycle sign in Bus lane
● Reduced lane width where speeding is observed
frequently. The space created can be a safety buffer
along the curb for cyclist. (link)
● Speeding is dangerous but quite common here. Install a
warning light/siren on high-risk-vehicles, e.g. delivery
trucks, lorries, taxis.

10. Idea to make walking safer
● Make junction-crossing safer
○ Synchronise traffic light signal with pedestrian crossing signal, no
need to press button and wait for a complete signal cycle for the green
man
○ "Left turn on red light" should not be allowed.
○ by moving it 10 meter away from the turn
○ Provide safety island (even just a strip) before big junctions
○ Provide shades/shelter at the waiting pod
● Make most roads (except expressway) safe to
cross at any point without needing overhead
bridge.

11. Synchronize traffic lights
● No need to press button to trigger green man.
● Green man should last at least at long as the green
traffic light

12. No left turn-on-red, or...
Driver is distracted Pedestrian is in danger

13. Safer crossing at junction
-small turning radius

14. Safer crossing at junction
-big turning radius

15. Safer crossing - Singapore example

16. Useful references
Singapore Land Transport Statistics in Brief 2011
3 minutes video review of bike friendly Houten, Netherlands
RiderLog, crowdsourced trip data from cyclist community
Hazard road segments for cycling (LCSG project)
Lane width project (LCSG project)
Singapore road safety, best or worst?
Status of cycling in Singapore (2008)
Making city streets safer (New York)
Econormic cost of traffic noise
Good Design Guilds
Car and bicycle, when to mix, when to separate?

17. Land is limited in Singapore..
(justification)
Bicycle parking is 10 times more space efficient
as car parking

18. More cycling = more efficient use of
limited road surface
Bicycling is 10 times more space efficient as driving!
Maximum throughput determined by the junction. Unit vehichle passed per
meter wide road per minutes
Singapore 7.3 car/meter/min Netherlands 75 bike/meter/min
Car = 7.3/ m/ min Bike = 75/ m/ min
Traffic count: 2012-04-04 Bicycle rush hours Ultrech 2011
(Netherlands)
Both video record available for reference

19. I pay road tax, therefore...
(misconception)
● Roads are not funded by "road & vehicle tax" alone.
e.g. 20km NSE cost 8 Billions, equals to 5 years taxes from all motor vehicles. The rest is paid
by all taxpayers, including pedestrians and cyclists.
● Currently no environmental tax imposed on driving, yet
the external cost are burden to the society in large
(CO2, Noise, Road kills, inconvenient to other road
users..)