No walk in park for officers keeping public paths safe

As an active mobility enforcement officer for 21/2 years, Ms Sunarti Abdul Rahman has dealt with her fair share of errant cyclists and electric-scooter riders who chafe at being booked.

But the 44-year-old never imagined that she and her team would be threatened at knifepoint while conducting a routine enforcement operation in Geylang last year.

She had stopped an elderly man who was riding an electric bicycle on a footpath. This is not allowed, and the device was overweight.

But it quickly turned into a stand-off when the man, who was unhappy that his e-bike was going to be seized for investigation, whipped out a penknife. Ms Sunarti and her team were able to disarm him and call the police.

Despite the harrowing experience, Ms Sunarti, who is employed by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), continued with her duties that day and is undeterred in her mission to keep public paths safe.

Most of the enforcement operations that she has participated in have been less eventful.

On Thursday, The Straits Times was allowed to observe one such operation. For about an hour in the late morning, Ms Sunarti and 11 other enforcement officers engaged cyclists, food-delivery riders and other active mobility device users at the junction of Yishun Ring Road and Yishun Avenue 2.

In that time, only one person was booked - a woman who was riding a bicycle without handbrakes. Her bicycle was impounded and she surrendered it without fuss.

Since September last year, all bicycles used on public paths and roads must have at least one functioning handbrake. Cyclists caught riding without handbrakes can be fined up to $10,000, jailed for up to six months, or both.

On Thursday, the enforcement officers also stopped e-scooter and e-bike riders to check if they had passed a mandatory theory test that was rolled out in July last year.

Since the start of this year, all e-scooter and e-bike riders have had to pass the test before they can use public paths. A digital certificate is issued to those who pass.

As at Wednesday, 52 users have been caught riding without a mandatory theory test certificate.

Those caught can be fined up to $2,000 and/or jailed for six months for the first offence.

Conflicts between enforcement officers and errant riders were rife before e-scooters were banned from footpaths in November 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic led to a sharp drop in their number here.

At the end of last year, there were 6,388 registered e-scooters, down from a peak of about 100,000.

Meanwhile, the number of e-bikes here has continued to tick upwards. There were 33,453 registered e-bikes at the end of last year, slightly more than the 31,660 at the end of May last year.

Ms Sunarti said her approach to dealing with errant cyclists and riders is to be calm while also being firm when explaining the offences they have committed and the action that needs to be taken.

If there is tension, she said, she tries to understand the reasons behind it and see things from the cyclist's or rider's point of view.

She also ensures that her body-worn camera is switched on at all times, in case of any dispute.

LTA said it has been leveraging technology to expand its presence beyond the 200 or so enforcement officers that it deploys islandwide.

Since 2019, it has been exploring the use of closed-circuit cameras at hot spots. On the ground, active mobility enforcement officers are equipped with speed guns.

Common offences include the use of e-scooters and e-bikes on footpaths, illegal modifications and the use of unregistered e-scooters.

But Ms Sunarti said her job involves more than just going after rule breakers. "We not only enforce but also educate path users on safety tips and regulations to foster a more responsible and gracious culture," she told ST.

Asked if she has any advice for cyclists and active mobility users, Ms Sunarti said: "We have a shared responsibility because we are sharing the same public paths. So it is good to understand the basic rules and regulations."