‘Our road infrastructure isn’t a playground’ — LTA warns public about damaged traffic lights due to TikTok trend of hanging on them

SINGAPORE: A Singapore TikTok trend left two traffic lights damaged. The “Maui Wowie” challenge was started by TikToker @aaronxbrown, who posted a video of himself hanging from a traffic light while lip-syncing to the song Maui Wowie by the American rapper Kid Cudi. 

In a recent TikTok post, a netizen shared a video edit of a slanted traffic light located in Hougang West, and the commenters were blaming the TikTok trend for causing it. In the video, the user who posted shared: “Alright now which one of yall tried hanging off of this?” 

Netizens expressed their thoughts and opinions in the comments. One netizen remarked that the government is going to ban the trend. 

Another netizen concluded that a car drove into the street light because of the dent at the bottom of the left side of the pole. 

One more netizen stated that if the traffic light can be pulled by a person by hanging on it, then the authorities need to make the traffic lights more sturdy. 

In another social media post, the Land Transport Authority informed people that they were aware of the trend among netizens to “film themselves hanging onto traffic lights, street signs and other road infrastructure”.

 

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A post shared by Land Transport Authority (@ltasg)

With this, the LTA remarked: “Fun’s fun, but our road infrastructure isn’t a playground. It helps facilitate travel and keeps everyone safe. Please don’t use them as props for social media. 😭 Let’s keep our roads safe (and your content risk-free)” 

“Our infrastructure keeps you safe, not for you to stunt on for likes,” the LTA added.

The authorities also shared that flashing lights are for guiding traffic, and not for everyone to flex on TikTok.

More netizens commented on this post. One commenter said that even the LTA got fed up with the TikTok trends and needed to remind people of the signage’s usage. 

“We should implement fines for people who do this trend, then use the fines to make public transport vouchers,” one netizen suggested. 

Another comment asked why the infrastructure in Singapore was so easy to break, and added that people should have a little fun. One more comment declared that the authorities only know what to say, but there is no action and enforcement given.