I already highlighted Singapore’s pioneering way of regulating dockless bike-share schemes on its territory, already 3 months ago. LTA introduced a MOU to operators in order to control parking behaviour, data sharing and service for the 100 000 bikes operated by 6 companies (oBike, ofo, Mobike, GBikes, SG Bike and ShareBikeSG). But still, we discovered recently that 2100 removal notices have been placed between may 2017 and january 2018, while 341 bikes were impounded. It allowed the government to collect S$180 000 in fines and fees from the different operators. But it is never clean enough in Singapore, and LTA wanted more: they revealed a new licensing regime on march 5th!

Some measures, such as data sharing (including GPS location) or remove indiscriminately parked bicycles in a timely manner were already in place thanks to the MOU.

Regarding parking regulation, two important measures have been added:

• The requirement for operators to temporarily ban users “who repeatedly park indiscriminately”
• The introduction of a hard geofencing system, thanks to QR codes on prefered parking locations. Users will have to scan parking places QR code before beeing able to end their ride.

LTA will start considering operators licensing demands by the middle of 2018, and will award the licenses at the end of 2018. Existing operators will be allowed to continue operating for two months, until the application window closes. If applications are submitted, they can continue operations until LTA releases the results of their submissions. The licensing rules will also include important points:

• The regular revision of the operator’s fleet size, judged on their ability to maintain and operate the fleet, and on the user demand to avoid overpopulation.
• The introduction of sanctions: financial fines up to S$100 000, reductions in fleet size, suspension or even the cancellation of their licences.

Round of applause for Singapore’s LTA for carrying on doing the spadework in dockless bike-sharing regulation!