Singapore bans electric scooters from footpaths after spate of accidents
- Riders will now be confined to cycling paths
- As retailers warn they could go bust, a minister says calls for a total ban are ‘getting louder’
The ban, which begins from Tuesday, will confine riders to 440km of cycling paths, down from the 5,500km of footpaths they could use previously.
Transport experts welcomed the move, saying the government had run out of patience with the problems caused by the scooters, often referred to as personal mobility devices (PMDs). But some retailers said they could go bust and urged the government to reconsider.
The ban follows an increase in the number of riders caught using machines that do not comply with government regulations.
“We catch an average of about 350 offenders per month. The number of accidents involving motorised PMDs continues to rise,” said Lam Pin Min, Singapore’s senior minister of state for transport.
The city state has been promoting the safe use of PMDs – an umbrella term for motorised scooters, hoverboards and unicycles – and the devices are popular with many Singaporeans who use them for the last mile of their commutes. The footpath ban announced on Monday will apply only to scooters, not hoverboards or unicycles.
