SINGAPORE - The authorities allocate the current 27,000 bicycle parking spaces at MRT stations and transport hubs based on a continuous assessment of demand, instead of splitting them evenly across the stations.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Baey Yam Keng said this on Wednesday in reply to Mr Louis Chua (Sengkang GRC), who wanted to know the current ratio of bicycle parking spaces per MRT station and what this will be by 2040.
Mr Baey said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) aims to provide sufficient bicycle parking capacity plus a number of buffer spaces.
For new MRT stations, factors such as MRT ridership, the number of homes nearby, whether they are first or last-mile stations, and whether they are near to sites such as migrant worker dormitories are all taken into account.
"In general, we do not look at a single fixed or target ratio for bicycle parking lots per MRT station," he said. "The number of lots ranges for different stations due to the different levels of demand near these transport nodes."
Even within first-mile stations, there are huge variations of between 250 and 800 parking spaces. "The provision of infrastructure such as bicycle spaces is critical and we will continue to work towards our vision of a car-lite society," said Mr Baey.
According to LTA's 2040 target, it wants to make sure that nine in 10 peak-hour commutes to the city are completed in under 45 minutes and trips to the nearest neighbourhood centre in under 20 minutes.
To achieve this, bicycles are an important option as first and last-mile commutes. In addition to cycling paths, LTA has said 3,000 more bicycle parking spaces will be added by 2025.
In recent years, it has also reclaimed more roadside car parking spaces, especially in the city, for this purpose, owing to space constraints
In response to Mr Chua's question on whether the LTA tracks the utilisation rates of bicycle parking spaces, Mr Baey said this is done annually and figures fluctuate.
In Mr Chua's constituency, Sengkang MRT station has a bicycle parking space usage rate of 65 per cent and Buangkok MRT station at 77 per cent, he said.
