Safe road for all

Safety first, speed follows

feedback to LTA (This is a work-in-progress file)Date shared with LTA: 2012-07-02 (last updated 2012-08-24)Compiled by: LovecyclingSG contact: chu.francis@gmail.com / taiwoon@gmail.com

LoveCyclingSg who we are

● We are a group of normal people who love cycling in Singapore (2000 members on FB)

● Many of us also drive ● Riding our bicycles, we discovered there are

many opportunities to make cycling safer, which also benefits drivers and pedestrians

● Examples of our effort: ○ Open-map to identify hazard roads○ Measuring lane width to identify opportunities for

safer driving and safe space for cycling○ Education on safe cycling practice during our rides

Land Transport includes walking & cycling (principle)

● No car trip is completed without walking. At the end of a car/bus/train trip, all of us need to walk to the destination.

● Planning and designing for walking/cycling is as important as planning for driving.

● We look to LTA to provide for the safe and seamless movement of all Land Transport, both motorized and non-motorized transport.

3 legged stool of Safe Roads

Infrastructure90% ensuredNatural safe behaviour

Education10% unclear situationFaster, heavier vehicle give way to slower, lighter vehicle

LawDeal with dangerous behaviour with sufficient deterrence

Safe Roads for walker, biker, driver

3 legs stool of Safe RoadsPrinciple: Walker, cyclist, drivers are all land transport users. LTA has the responsibility to ensure safe and efficient movement of all road users.

1) Infrastructure: Improve road design to facilitate safe behaviour , and to discourage dangerous behaviour. (aim for 90% NATURAL safe driving, cycling and walking)2) Mutual understanding (Education)Principal: operator of more dangerous vehicle give way to less dangerous one.Communicate to all road users the "good practice" of safe use of roads. Ideally there should be minimum rules and regulations. (aim to clarify the remaining 10% of what should be the safe behaviour)3) LawUnder the above provision, if someone still behave dangerously, the law should be strong enough to punish wrong doer. More dangerous vehicle operator should bare higher responsibility if accident happen. The assumption is the operator of more dangerous vehicle is at fault until it prove not.

Strategy:Phase 1. Low hanging fruits: Change should first targeted at low cost, easy to implemented ideas that provides advantage to all users. Phase 2. Get used to it. After the first phase changes, wait for the users to get used to the new situation. collect feedback and prepare for more improvement.Phase 3. Implement improvement.

Safety (perceived & actual) is the major concern for choosing cycling

● Too many close calls● ~18 cyclists killed per year● All sharebike users who withdrawn stated

road safety is the main concern● Car kills, bicycles will not. Design to facilitate

"Safe driving" is by far more important than "Safe cycling".

Frustrated driver is dangerous

● It is frustrating to drive in a Rush-Stop-Rush pattern. It is better to drive gradually 20-40-20kmh. The moderate driving pattern is safer, less noisy, less polluted and feels more pleasant.

● Average car speed is 28 kmh in CBD area, this can be achieved without R-S-R driving

Idea to make cycling safer (1)

● Speeding - it is illegal, design roads to moderate car speed, not to encourage speeding.

● A frustrated driver is a dangerous driver, reduce rush-stop-rush driving pattern.

● Add a bicycle sign on Bus lane ● Mark small roads "share" for car and bicycles

Idea to make cycling safer (2)

● At junction, cyclist going straight, drivers intends to turn left: Paint "protected lane" to signal driver should give way to cyclist.

● at multi-lane one way street, cyclist need to cut across several lane in order to turn right. We need a better design here.

● Cycling is allowed in Bus lane, but not all Bus driver recognize that. Paint a bicycle sign in Bus lane

● Reduced lane width where speeding is observed frequently. The space created can be a safety buffer along the curb for cyclist. (link)

● Speeding is dangerous but quite common here. Install a warning light/siren on high-risk-vehicles, e.g. delivery trucks, lorries, taxis.

Idea to make walking safer

● Make junction-crossing safer ○ Synchronise traffic light signal with pedestrian crossing signal, no

need to press button and wait for a complete signal cycle for the green man

○ "Left turn on red light" should not be allowed.

○ by moving it 10 meter away from the turn

○ Provide safety island (even just a strip) before big junctions

○ Provide shades/shelter at the waiting pod

● Make most roads (except expressway) safe to cross at any point without needing overhead bridge.

Synchronize traffic lights

● No need to press button to trigger green man.● Green man should last at least at long as the green

traffic light

No left turn-on-red, or...Driver is distracted Pedestrian is in danger

Safer crossing at junction-small turning radius

Safer crossing at junction-big turning radius

Safer crossing - Singapore example

Useful referencesSingapore Land Transport Statistics in Brief 20113 minutes video review of bike friendly Houten, NetherlandsRiderLog, crowdsourced trip data from cyclist communityHazard road segments for cycling (LCSG project)Lane width project (LCSG project)Singapore road safety, best or worst?Status of cycling in Singapore (2008)Making city streets safer (New York)Econormic cost of traffic noiseGood Design GuildsCar and bicycle, when to mix, when to separate?

Land is limited in Singapore.. (justification)

Bicycle parking is 10 times more space efficient as car parking

More cycling = more efficient use of limited road surface

Bicycling is 10 times more space efficient as driving!Maximum throughput determined by the junction. Unit vehichle passed per meter wide road per minutes

Car = 7.3/ m/ minTraffic count: 2012-04-04

Bike = 75/ m/ minBicycle rush hours Ultrech 2011 (Netherlands)

Both video record available for reference

Singapore 7.3 car/meter/min Netherlands 75 bike/meter/min

I pay road tax, therefore... (misconception)

● Roads are not funded by "road & vehicle tax" alone.e.g. 20km NSE cost 8 Billions, equals to 5 years taxes from all motor vehicles. The rest is paid by all taxpayers, including pedestrians and cyclists.

● Currently no environmental tax imposed on driving, yet the external cost are burden to the society in large (CO2, Noise, Road kills, inconvenient to other road users..)