With the Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) deadline of June 30, it is now illegal for personal mobility device (PMD) users to ride, cause or allow another person to ride an unregistered e-scooter on public paths.
Prior to the Sunday deadline, an additional 85,000 e-scooters were registered with the LTA. Of that number, nearly 1,000 registrations were recorded on the last day, an LTA statement said on Monday (July 1).
Retailers and other operators are also barred from selling or leasing any non-UL2272 certified PMDs.
New PMD owners and those who have yet to register their devices can still register at the OneMotoring website if their e-scooters comply with LTA’s device criteria.
Registration requisites
Those registering must be at least 16 years old, and will have to declare that their e-scooters do not exceed 20kg in weight and 70cm in maximum width. The e-scooters’ maximum motorised device speed should also be capped at 25kmh.
In its statement, the LTA said that about 75% of registrants were between the ages of 21 and 50, while 21% were 51 years old and above. Those aged between 16 and 20 made up the rest.
“From today, only e-scooters that are compliant with LTA’s device criteria, including UL2272 certification, can be registered.
“LTA enforces our Active Mobility rules on a daily basis through our own operations as well as joint ones with other partner agencies. We enforce against all active mobility offences including non-registration of e-scooters, device non-compliance and speeding.”
Fines
First-time offenders found to be riding an unregistered e-scooter on public paths can be penalised of up to S$2,000 and be jailed of up to three months.
Retailers and operators found flouting the UL2272 certification rule can be fined up to S$5,000 and jailed up to three months for a first offence.
In a statement to The Straits Times, transport economist Walter Theseira said it would be difficult to gauge the number of e-scooters which remain unregistered or non-compliant with standards in Singapore.
He said: “While the majority of actively used devices should have been registered, it would be hard to assess how far we are from 100 per cent registration, because there were no registration requirements until recently.
“I think there will be some unregistered units and enforcement will have to send a message that this isn’t going to be tolerated, to protect the public and legitimate registered users,” said Theseira. -/TISG