LTA – Land Transport Authority is rolling out a pilot project of self-service sharing of bicycles within Jurong Lake District by the end of 2017. This move will benefit the residents residing in this area, like the LakeVille, Lakeshore condo as well as Lake Grande.
The main aim of the scheme is to give the general public unlimited access to bicycles for use without worrying about owning one. A total of 1000 bicycles will be provided for with a total of 100 docking stations established in the pilot phase.
Residents in the area can get a bicycle of their choice at any of the registered docking stations, use it to run their errands and later on return them back to the docking stations.
For convenience purposes, the docking stations will be established with each being far from each other by just 400 meters. The bicycles will allow the residents to commute either to the MRT stations or bus interchanges where they will leave the bicycles and then continue with their journey.
“Through a tendering process, an investor or operator will be appointed and will be tasked with the responsibility of owning, building, operating and maintaining of the pilot project scheme in the Jurong Lake District for a period of 8 years. Furthermore, the investor will have the option of bidding for the subsequent bicycle sharing project schemes in Marina bay or City Center, Pasir Ris and Tampines area,” revealed the Land Transport Authority.
“Funding to cover parts of the set up and operating costs of the pilot scheme will be provided for. The would-be operators will have the opportunity to bid for a fixed sum that they feel, they will need in every year stipulated in the contract,” added the Land transport authority.
Other than choosing an operator to run the pilot project, the Land transport Authority will also use tender to appoint a sponsorship consultant, with the task of finding suitable sponsors. Just like other successful bicycle sharing schemes in London and New York, the potential sponsors will receive exclusive naming and advertising rights to the bicycle sharing schemes.
“This bicycle sharing scheme is the first to be rolled out to the general public on such scale. We highly believe beyond reasonable doubt that the scheme will greatly benefit the residents in terms of convenience and even health wise,” said the LTA CEO Chew Men Leong.
“With this pilot scheme, we will be in a much better position to effectively study its feasibility and later on determine how best to roll out the scheme to other parts of the country,’ he further added.
The bicycle project scheme is aligned with the government’s vision of facilitating cycling and effectively improving the fast-and-last-mile connectivity to other means of public transport and key amenities.
By the year 2030, an estimated 700 million km of the cycling pathways is expected to be established in the National cycling plan.
