It isn't every day one gets pulled over by the traffic police, told to exit the vehicle — and then issued a goodie bag instead of a notice of offence, aka summon.

On Apr. 1, 2024, however, that was the case for some motorists.

An April Fool's Day prank this was not, as the message behind it is serious.

The initiative by the police is to promote "good driving and riding habits" on Singapore roads.

Good driving campaign

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) launched its "Reward the Sensible Motorists" campaign on Monday at the traffic police headquarters.

A fleet of police officers assembled at the headquarters' car park, before setting off in search of exemplary drivers and riders, which is quite different from their usual job scope.

They were waved off by the event's guest of honour, Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development Faishal Ibrahim.

These officers kept an eye out for motorists displaying proper driving and riding practices, and rewarded them with goodie bags bearing gifts like so:

They will be carrying out such exercises till Sep. 30, 2024.

Faishal stated that the police has been "stepping up on their education, engagement, and enforcement efforts".

He said this particular campaign is a "timely reminder" for everyone to drive and ride more responsibly on the roads.

He also urged businesses that manage large fleets of motorcycles and vehicles to improve employees' safety on the roads by allowing "sufficient time to complete their work schedules".

Mothership tagged along for some of the police's operations, and met three lucky motorists who got pulled over.

Shaiful Amjad Basri

Shaiful Amjad Basri was the first motorcyclist to get stopped around Geylang.

He wasn't exactly new to the game.

Revealing that he'd actually been stopped twice before by the police for good driving, the 54-year-old said he wasn't sweating much when he was pulled over this third time.

"I knew I did nothing wrong," he stated firmly.

He'd figured there were only two reasons why he was stopped — the police were doing a spot check, or they were going to "give [him] something".

Turns out, he'd been spotted for wearing "proper riding gear", which included his helmet, riding jacket, gloves, long pants, and covered shoes.

Zulqifar bin Azman

Another rider who checked all the boxes for proper riding gear was 32-year-old Zulqifar bin Azman, who was pulled over by the police in Tampines.

"I wasn't expecting it, so I was a bit shocked," he told Mothership, adding that he'd been paying heed to the speed limit.

His gut feeling told him he'd done nothing wrong.

Sure enough, the rider had caught the attention of the traffic police because of his good riding attire.

Having been a rider for 13 years, the road veteran left us with some words of wisdom: "Dress for the fall rather than the ride itself."

He elaborated that "defensive driving" was the key to road safety, adding that it was important to have "spatial awareness" and "predict what other road users are about to do".

Tee Beng Teck

Previously known as "Reward the Riders", the campaign used to only include motorcyclists, but has been expanded to involve drivers as well.

One such driver who got pulled over was Tee Beng Teck.

He was lauded for giving way to an ambulance in Potong Pasir.

The 59-year-old driver, who said he'd been driving for 40 years, had filtered to the left lane to allow an ambulance to pass.

He too was "totally surprised" that he'd been pulled over, thinking that he'd "made some mistake" in his driving and was about to face the music.

His nerves disappeared when he was praised for giving way instead.

The incident not only left Tee with a free goodie bag, but also a fresh perspective on the traffic police in Singapore.

"People's impression is that the traffic police always dishes out summons," he said, so this was certainly a pleasant surprise.

Top images by Mothership