Is it an uphill journey to turn Singapore into a cycling city?

The Business Times, Is it an uphill journey to turn Singapore into a cycling city?

Imagine this: You’re heading to work, but you’ve missed your bus and the next one won’t arrive for another 10 minutes. A nearby bicycle provides the solution – you scan its QR code and kick off, following a cycling path to the nearest train station.

There, you scan another QR code when parking the bicycle, and then you’re on track to reach the office with time to spare. Easy.

But could this ever become the default commute in Singapore?

Bike-sharing has been growing in popularity here, driven by improvements in route infrastructure and accessibility of the vehicles.

The government itself expects a rise in “walk-cycle-ride” journeys, which combine walking, using a bicycle or personal mobility device (PMD), and taking public or point-to-point transport.

However, observers say Singapore is still far from succeeding in building a biking network.

Compared with 20 years ago, “a lot of improvements have been done already”, says independent transport consultant Tham Chen Munn. “But are we there yet? No.”

A bumpy ride?
Bike-sharing first became mainstream in Singapore in 2017, with the entry of several operators from China – which are now all defunct.

At the peak in 2018, there were more than 200,000 shared bikes in Singapore, operated by at least eight companies including local startups.

When the first operators entered, the government created parking zones for the bikes to encourage responsible parking.

In 2018, a new licensing regime was introduced for shared bike operators. So was “geofencing”, or requiring users to scan a QR code at parking spaces to return the bikes.

Following the introduction of these regulations, the industry soon saw exits and consolidation. By 2024, Singapore was left with just two bike-sharing operators: home-grown startup Anywheel and Alibaba-backed HelloRide, a Chinese company which entered Singapore in 2022.

These are still the only bike-sharing operators on the island, with a total fleet of 60,000 bicycles – 35,000 operated by Anywheel and 25,000 by HelloRide.

Both operators are optimistic, however, seeing a rise in their bikes being used for daily commuting as well as first and last-mile travel.

Around 60 to 70 per cent of HelloRide Singapore’s customers use its bikes with other forms of transportation, such as trains or buses.

About 40 to 50 per cent of customers are also on unlimited passes – subscriptions that allow unlimited rides in a certain timeframe.

“That alone already indicates that there is at least the desire to (keep using the bikes), or the actual repetitive usage of (them),” says HelloRide Singapore chief executive Hayden Choo.

“Not only are people riding relatively frequently, they (also) already know how many times they will need to access the shared bicycle network in, say, a month.”

The majority of Anywheel trips are between residential areas and public transport nodes such as MRT stations and bus stops, notes founder and chief executive Htay Aung.

Founded in 2017 during the first wave of bike-sharing, Anywheel has been profitable for the past three years.

After adjusting its strategy last year, the startup is one-third closer to the profit targets that it set nearly 10 years ago, Htay Aung says, though he declines to share specific figures.

This was achieved without raising prices on its services for the past six years, he adds.

But margins are thin in the industry, notes Timothy Wong, associate professor (education) in the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) economics department. This means volume is necessary for operators to be sustainable.

Samuel Chng, research assistant professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), considers it unlikely for bike-sharing to see exponential growth, where “suddenly everyone wakes up one day and decides to cycle”.

Instead, he expects slow and steady growth in tandem with infrastructure improvements, greater availability and more willingness to cycle.

“The key for (biking) to work is for the operators to remain financially viable, so that bike-sharing itself can remain a long-term viable alternative for people,” says Dr Chng, who also heads the Urban Psychology Lab in the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities at SUTD.

Singapore does have one advantage. Independent urban mobility consultant Tham notes that in other South-east Asian countries, cheap petrol makes motorcycles more popular than bike-sharing.

This might be why the Republic is “doing better” in bicycle ridership than neighbouring cities that are similarly compact – where city-centre trips do not require cars – such as Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, he says.

Building a network
On the infrastructure front, Singapore has built more than 440 km of cycling paths since 2013, with a target of reaching more than 1,000 km by 2040.

This is in line with its ambition to be a “45-minute city” with “20-minute towns” by then, in the latest Land Transport Master Plan. This means nine in 10 peak-period journeys should take under 45 minutes, while all journeys to the nearest neighbourhood centre should take less than 20 minutes.

Yet, observers note that bike paths are inconsistent across the country.

Newer paths on pavements are wider and painted in red, with clearer designations.

Some older paths are not clearly indicated.

There is also a separate park connector network.

Some paths diverge from main roads, which means additional travel time, notes Walter Theseira, associate professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences’ (SUSS) School of Business.

“For example, the most comfortable and safest route might be to go down some side roads, go to the park connector network, then go off again to your destination,” he says.

“But then you might find that the most direct route is to actually cycle on the road.”

Dr Chng adds: “There are parts in which provision or the infrastructure may not be complete, and it might take a bit of planning for people to cycle today.

“Especially if they want to use it for commuting from home to office, users probably need to understand the route a bit more, and do some recce.”

Bicycle kingdom
In countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, biking is the norm, or at least a preferred form of transport. But while Singapore can draw lessons from them, it may be unrealistic to expect a complete emulation, say observers.

Tham notes: “Contextually, we have to have our own flavour, but we definitely can learn from (the other cities), and tweak accordingly.”

In some countries, cycling is part of the local culture. That is not the case in Singapore, says Anywheel’s Htay Aung.

“We are in a business that needs to advocate behaviour change because Singapore does not come from a bicycle kingdom,” he says. “It is not like Copenhagen or its European counterparts, where cycling is already a part of life.”

SUSS’ Prof Theseira notes that Europe is “an interesting case” because the bicycle network can sometimes be superior to roads, with bicycles able to enter parts of the city that cars cannot.

“Some of those older cities have a very poor motorised road network due to the public policy decision to not improve that at the expense of other things,” he says.

In this way, Singapore may be a “victim of our own success” due to its well-designed road network, especially in the city centre, he adds.

SUTD’s Dr Chng notes that Singapore’s public transport system is very competitive: it is affordable, has very high service levels, and is generally well-planned.

Singapore also plans for 80 per cent of public housing blocks to be within a 10-minute walk from an MRT station exit by 2030.

“That’s what bike-sharing or even active mobility is up against, because public transport is the backbone of our transport system here,” he says.

“The way that we are used to travelling around is quite different, and to then choose to cycle would be a very deliberate kind of decision that one has to make.”

Then, there is the weather. Unlike cooler European cities, Singapore’s tropical climate means year-round heat and humidity. This may make biking uncomfortable, especially in the day.

That is why HelloRide has seen more customers biking home in the evenings – when it is cooler – than in the mornings.

Frequent rain and humidity also take a toll on bicycles, requiring greater investment in fleet maintenance such as routine upkeep or replacing old vehicles, Choo adds.

Closer to home, China has become a major market for bike-sharing. Yet, despite cultural similarities, Singapore might find it hard to follow suit.

Shared bike availability is much higher in China, enhancing convenience and accessibility, says Dr Chng. Bike-sharing is also more integrated with China’s transportation network.

Furthermore, China’s bike-sharing players are mostly tied to apps used in everyday life. For example, HelloRide in China is embedded in payment service Alipay’s app, with both owned by Chinese tech giant Ant Group.

Chinese navigation apps also tend to highlight cycling options over walking.

“The friction for adopting or choosing a bike is much lower,” Dr Chng says.

As for infrastructure, many Chinese cities have fairly developed bicycle paths, some of which parallel main roads – allowing bicycles to become a direct alternative to cars, Prof Theseira notes.

HelloRide sees “much better penetration” in China as the infrastructure is more developed, with many dedicated bicycle lanes, says Choo.

“People’s incomes also vary quite significantly,” he says. “A lot of people there rely on two-wheelers as a mode of transport and don’t even aspire to purchase a car or motorcycle.”

In China, bikes do not need to be parked in designated zones, which gives users “the ultimate convenience”, he adds.

However, this might introduce compliance issues – which he notes Singapore’s government wants to avoid.

During Singapore’s first wave of bike-sharing, bikes were often parked haphazardly on grass patches or along the road, sometimes even appearing in drains.

Dr Chng adds: “It’s a bit of a compromise (on convenience) because if you are able to park anywhere and everywhere, I think the first wave of bike-sharing has shown us that people will really park everywhere.”

Powered up
Besides infrastructure, technology might help: in the form of power-assisted bicycles.

The majority of bike-sharing users today are younger, given that ordinary cycling requires a certain level of fitness and agility, Tham says.

Prof Theseira agrees: “When power is not the norm, I would say only the fitter ones can access it.” While there are older cyclists, they are typically very used to cycling and own their own bikes, he adds.

Electric bicycles could therefore boost the popularity of this transport mode in an ageing society like Singapore.

The city-state’s two bike-sharing operators do operate electric bicycles in other cities in the region. Anywheel has e-scooters and e-bikes in Thailand and Vietnam, while HelloRide operates e-bikes in a sandbox in central Kuala Lumpur.

Choo said that the usage and revenue per bicycle ride in Kuala Lumpur is “exponentially more” than in Singapore.

“E-bikes are, to me, a no-brainer for hot and humid climates, whether it’s Malaysia or Singapore or Thailand,” he says. “Hopefully, it is something that we can progress with the (Singapore) government on.”

In the first wave of bike-sharing, Singapore also allowed shared electric vehicles, mainly in the form of scooters.

But those companies soon halted operations – with several local startups heading overseas – in the face of rising safety concerns and stricter government regulations.

Anywheel’s Htay Aung has seen, from experience, that safety is a key concern for power-assisted vehicles.

In Thailand, Anywheel operates both electric rides and traditional bicycles in the same areas.

Htay Aung says that compared with traditional bikes, there are “way, way, way more” e-scooter accidents, and the same goes for power-assisted bikes.

In Singapore, e-scooters are restricted to cycling paths. Only approved models are allowed, every device must be registered with the government, and riders must pass a theory test. Similar restrictions apply to PMDs, a category which includes e-bikes.

Nevertheless, demand for power-assisted mobility remains strong, notes Prof Theseira.

Some have found a loophole in the form of personal mobility aids (PMAs). In response, the government has been clamping down on these, too. On Jun 1, new rules kicked in for PMAs, including a speed limit, size restrictions and a medical certificate requirement.

“The demand tells me that people exploit these loopholes because it meets their needs really well and cost-effectively,” says Prof Theseira.

The issue, he adds, is that Singapore lacks the infrastructure for power-assisted vehicles to be used safely. Instead of being concerned about the vehicles’ safety features, planners should consider the possibility of infrastructure that makes their use safe, he says.

Safety aside, Htay Aung adds that e-bikes are not as eco-friendly as they should be – which is “very ironic”, given that environmental sustainability is one reason to push for biking.

E-bikes typically cost more to rent and have a higher return on investment (ROI) than traditional bikes. They are harder to maintain, however, due to the need for more parts and charging.

Given the higher ROI, companies may throw e-bikes away instead of maintaining and redeploying them. This is particularly the case in countries without mature battery-recycling facilities, as companies would have to pay to recycle, Htay Aung says.

On the right track
Ultimately, Singapore should not aim to become a bicycle-dominated city.

“The more honest goal should be to maximise the last-mile role cycling can play for Singapore, rather than become a cycling city,” says NUS’ Prof Wong. “This is a more achievable target, and arguably a more sensible one given the climate and land constraints.”

Tham adds: “We have our own flavour, we have our own context, we have our own timeline, and I think we have done a pretty good job.”

The country is on the right track regardless, and bike-sharing is set to grow, say observers.

While it may take time for older estates to gain bike-friendly paths, newer towns such as Tengah are being built to be car-lite.

There is also “some interesting upgrading” of infrastructure, such as the bicycle bridge over the Pan Island Expressway that connects with St Andrew’s School, Dr Chng notes. “But all this takes time.”

Meanwhile, HelloRide hopes to better integrate with Singapore’s public transport system, allowing the use of SimplyGo or EZ-Link cards to access the shared bicycle network.

This collaboration is scheduled for later this year, says Choo, without giving further details.

Certain cities may face a “chicken and egg” issue, says Htay Aung: demand for biking depends on the state of infrastructure, yet governments may improve infrastructure only if demand rises.

In contrast, the factors to improve bicycle uptake are all aligned in Singapore, he says.

The government is building infrastructure and creating policies to boost cycling’s popularity, while industry players are scaling up supply to improve availability and accessibility.

“With these two (trends), more and more people will be riding, and then the bicycle culture will happen,” Htay Aung says.