More than $1 billion needed to complete cycling path network: Lam Pin Min
SINGAPORE — The government may need to spend “more than $1 billion” to complete the islandwide cycling path network, said Senior Minister for Transport Lam Pin Min in Parliament on Monday (6 January).
“We had previously announced a plan to extend the network of cycling paths from 440km to 750km by 2025 and 1,300km by 2030. We will accelerate the pace of implementation, by a few years,” said Dr Lam.
He was responding to a query from Jurong GRC MP Ang Wei Neng, who asked how many kilometres of cycling paths will be built by the end of this year.
Dr Lam added that the Ministry of Transport (MOT) would be discussing the issue with the Housing Development Board, the National Parks Board and the local town councils to establish a “practical timeline”.
“We are also discussing with (the Ministry of Finance) to secure additional funding for this purpose... We will provide more details at the Committee of Supply,” he said.
Singapore currently has over 5,500km of footpaths and some 440km of cycling paths. Since 5 November last year, e-scooters have been banned from use along footpaths. The move led to a public outcry from food delivery riders who felt that their livelihoods had been affected as a result of the ban.
Dr Lam told the House on Monday that some 3,550 applications had been received for an e-scooter trade-in grant, which is among a slew of measures taken by the government and others to help food delivery riders adapt to the ban.
He also noted that since the ban was imposed, there had been a 30 per cent drop in the number of accidents involving e-scooters travelling along public paths.
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