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news
Canyon Sram in TTT at 2017 World Road Championships (copyright Simon Wilkinson, SWpix.com)Singapore to ban cyclists from riding in groups longer than 5 bike lengths
Singapore is to ban cyclists from riding in groups of more than five bicycles in length, whether in single or double file.
The new law will effectively cap the number of riders in a group at a maximum of 10 when they are riding two abreast, which is currently permitted on roads with two or more lanes.
On single lane roads and in bus lanes during their hours of operation, cyclists will have to continue to ride in single file, but in a group of no more than five.
Coming into effect from 1 January 2022, it is one of a number of recommendations designed “to enhance road safety” submitted in a report earlier this month to the country’s Ministry of Transport.
The report was written by the Active Mobility Advisory Panel (AMAP), which was set up in 2015, and followed a six-month review, which the ministry said “is timely given the growing popularity of cycling in recent years, with more people taking up cycling as a convenient and environmentally-friendly way to commute, while keeping fit at the same time.
“This has led to increased interactions between cyclists and other road users, and concerns about road safety when cyclists ride on roads,” the ministry continued.
It said that the report “takes into consideration the perspective of all road users. AMAP has taken a balanced and fair-minded approach, with the aim of strengthening road safety for all.
“AMAP has also studied practices in other countries and incorporated relevant learning points in its recommendations.”
Turning to the issue of the maximum group sizes, the Ministry of Justice said: “Given space constraints on Singapore’s urban road network, we will also adopt the AMAP’s recommendation to limit cycling groups to a maximum length of five bicycles, which is approximately the length of a bus.”
It also said that two recommendations from AMAP of best practice, while “not requirements for strict compliance in all situations … are useful guidelines and should be followed where practicable to enhance road safety.”
Those are that separate groups of cyclists should “keep a safe distance of approximately two lamp posts (or around 30m)” between them, and that motorists should leave “a minimum distance of 1.5m when passing cyclists on roads.”
The ministry said that it agreed that “all cyclists should be strongly encouraged to purchase third-party liability insurance to protect themselves from potential financial liabilities,” and that it was also in agreement with AMAP “that licensing of cyclists or registration of bicycles should not be introduced at this juncture.
“Besides affecting the majority of law-abiding cyclists, there is little evidence from overseas case studies and Singapore’s past experience that licensing of cyclists is effective in promoting road safety or deterring errant cyclists,” the ministry pointed out.
Meanwhile, fines for cyclists caught committing a number of specified offences, including exceeding the maximum group sizes, will increase from Singapore $75 (around £40) to $150 (£80). Those are:
1 Not complying with any traffic sign (e.g. failure to stop at red light)
2 Riding abreast of another cyclist on single lane roads, and on bus lanes during bus lane operational hours
3 Not riding as near as practicable to the far-left edge of the road
4 Not riding in an orderly manner and with due regard for the safety of others
5 Riding against the flow of traffic
6 Riding on expressways, as well as in road and expressway tunnels
7 [New] Riding with more than five cyclists in a single file, or ten cyclists when riding two abreast (on roads where riding abreast is permitted).
However, the ministry added that “for more serious cases, the cyclist may be charged in Court and face a fine of up to $1,000 and/or a jail term of up to 3 months for the first offence, and a fine of up to $2,000 and/or a jail term of up to 6 months for the second or subsequent offence.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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45 comments
Great! We're in!
Wait! We're not??
You can have 5 of those combinations and comply, it will be a long bus though!
Hmmm... how does one go about overtaking such a group?
You're just fishing! Pedal to the metal of course, you can't give 'em any extra room since they've selfishly taken up slightly more space than a car and if you have to pull in on them to avoid hitting a driver coming the other way that's their lookout.
As long as they pay the paintshop bill....
Are motorists likewise limited to being in bunches of vehicles no greater than the length of a bus, with a safe distance of 30m between groups?
Does this help? https://sso.agc.gov.sg/SL/RTA1961-R11?ValidDate=20191201&ProvIds=P1IV-P4...
Looks like they are limited to a group of one and the safe distance changes with the speed they are travelling.
My thoughts exactly. After all, the report “takes into consideration the perspective of all road users. AMAP has taken a balanced and fair-minded approach, with the aim of strengthening road safety for all."
That'll be cars in twos and threes with 30m between them, to strengthen road safety for other road users, like cyclists.
cars travelling with a 2 second interval at 30mph will already be at 27m spacing.
So impossible for a driver to safely overtake.
Car is ~5m long, and needs sufficient room to allow 2s both in front and behind after overtaking.
So at 15mph (6.7m/s) (not unreasonable speed for group rides) they need ~32m minimum (with no margin of error, so more like 40-50m)...
So clearly if two groups are following each other with recommended gap then a car would need to overtake both groups in a single manoeuvre...
Let me check the maths... 30 m distance - less 4.6m (the length of my car) = 25.4m. Divide that by two to work out the gap in front and behind, 12.7m. Need 2 seconds stopping distance, so 6.35m/s = 14.20455 mph
So should be able to overtake the rear group of cyclists, so long as I'm not travelling any faster than 14.2 mph when I pull back in behind the second from rear group (unless the second from rear group is travelling travelling less than 14.2 mph, in which case, I would need to reduce my speed to match, but could perhaps also decrease the distance).
I think what you've calculated is what it would take to be able to pull in and stop safely between two stationary groups of cyclists, which isn't quite the same thing.
What qwerty360 is essentially saying is that if the groups of cyclists are already travelling at 15mph, 30m apart, there isn't room for a car travelling at the same pace between them to maintain a 2s gap between each group and the car.
As it happens, what you've calculated also gives you the maximum speed at which this arrangement would be possible (ignoring the difficulty of manouvring the car into the gap so precisely). In other words, as long as the cyclists aren't going faster than 14.2mph you could overtake in two hops; any faster and you couldn't.
Of course that all rather assumes that the rear group wouldn't adjust and ease off a bit to open the gap up once they start getting overtaken.
No, he has calculated that a car could be 2 seconds behind the front group while also being 2 seconds behind the rear group, if the gap between the groups is 30m, provided they are travelling at no more 14.2mph.
I think the term stopping distance is misleading 2s is the recomended gap for following other vehicles.
all sounds very tight though, to over take the first group and then pull in precisely matching speed exactly halfway between the groups.
Clever trick
[Typo apart] What you've said there is basically the same as my third paragraph. But in jh2727's workings the limiting factor is the speed at which the driver of the car chooses to slot into the gap. That ignores the fact that that speed is dictated by the speed the cyclists are going, because the car has to keep pace to maintain the same station between them. In the original scenario, this speed was 15mph, so it was correct that it wouldn't be possible to do the two-hop overtake and preserve 2s gaps to both groups.
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