Come 2019, people who don't park their shared-bicycles properly will be fined S$5.

Proper shared-bicycle parking entails:

1. Finding a proper parking spot,
2. Locking the bicycles, and
3. Scanning a Quick Response (QR) code

[related_story]

Those who fail to park their bicycles properly for three times in a calendar year will be banned from using shared-bike services for a month. Each subsequent ban will be for a longer period, up to a year.

This QR code system will be installed gradually from end September and implemented in January 2019.

According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) more than 7,000 public bicycle parking spaces have been added in this year alone to combat the problem of indiscriminate bicycle parking.

Here are some examples:

According to The Straits Times, if the QR codes are damaged or missing, riders will have to submit a photo of the damaged code, or of the bicycle in the designated parking zone to end the trip.

Successful bike-sharing applications to be announced soon

Bike-sharing companies who manage to get their bike-sharing operating licences from LTA will have to comply with this QR code system as well.

To date, four companies - ofo, Mobike, SG Bike, and GBikes - have submitted their applications. Another three companies - Anywheel, QiQi Zhixiang, and GrabCycle - have applied for a "regulatory sandbox licence" as they do not have a long enough track record in operating bike-sharing services in Singapore. 

Successful licensees will be announced by end September.

LTA's licencing will allow it to control operators' fleet size, track indiscriminately parked bicycles more efficiently, and share information on recalcitrant bike-users, among other things.

Here's more if you're interested in the new LTA regulations for bike-sharing operators:

All photos in article body by LTA Facebook. Cover image by Joshua Lee.