Warm response to e-bike registration

More than 600 power-assisted bicycles (PAB), or e-bikes, were registered with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) yesterday- the first day of a registration period that will end on Jan 31 next year.

In response to queries from The New Paper, LTA said that as of 5pm yesterday, 636 e-bikes were registered either online on the One Motoring website, or at SingPost branches.

Earlier this month, LTA announced that e-bike users have until Jan 31 to register their devices. The owner has to be at least 16 years of age.

After registering, owners will be assigned a registration number. They then have three days to get a plate made with the number and affix it on the back of their bikes. These number plates must feature black characters against a yellow background or white characters against a black background.

LTA told TNP that 30,000 e-bikes have been approved for use and been given coloured seals of approval since 2004.

The agency estimates that about half of these e-bikes are still in use today.

Previously, a blue seal of approval was issued for authorised e-bikes but following tighter requirements in Feb 2016, orange seals were issued.

E-bikes with both seals can be registered from now till Jan 31. After this date, only e-bikes with the orange LTA seals can be registered.

Users who obtained the seals before yesterday will have the $50 registration fee waived, if they register by the end of November.

Under the mandatory e-bike registration scheme, owners who sell their vehicles must transfer the registration online within seven days of handing over the e-bike. A fee of $11 is applicable.

LTA said it takes a "serious view" of the use and sale of noncompliant e-bikes, adding that it has issued an average of 1,500 notices to errant e-bike users annually over the past three years.

From Feb 2018, it will be an offence to own or use an unregistered e-bike without a valid number plate on public roads or paths. Users caught riding an unregistered e-bike on public roads and paths can be fined up to $2,000 and jailed for up to three months for the first offence, while users without a valid number plate can be fined up to $1,000 and jailed for up to three months on the first conviction.

In January, then-Senior Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo announced the need for e-bike registration in Parliament, following a series of fatal e-bike accidents.

An LTA spokesman said: "Registration of PABs complements and strengthens the current type-approval regime to ensure better enforcement against non-compliant PABs and reckless PAB users."