Entrepreneur blames Singapore’s LTA for failed $3.5m underground bicycle parking project

More than a year after SecureMyBike, Singapore’s first automated underground bicycle parking system, shut down after two years of operations, Smartcity Projects CEO Bruno Navarro blamed the Land Transport Authority (LTA) for allegedly choosing the wrong location for the facility.

Navarro’s firm had gotten the contract for the execution and operation of the parking space from the Singapore government agency.

He told Vulcan Post that there was little demand for the underground parking service as it was located in an area that’s just a five-minute walk from an MRT station, where a lot of free surface-level bicycle parking slots were available.

“Not only do people have to travel further to reach this building, they also still have to carry their bikes up the stairs to deposit them into the kiosks. It’s too much hassle to store your bike for the price of S$0.45 (US$0.34) per hour. Cyclists would rather lock their bikes somewhere more convenient and free,” Navarro told Vulcan Post.

The demand didn’t pick up despite signages, bicycle maps, free trials, and discounts to attract users to the service.

When Tech in Asia reached out to LTA, we were referred to the statement delivered by Singapore’s transport minister Khaw Boon Wan in parliament in February 2020. He explained that the closure of the project was due to the rising demand for shared bicycles and e-scooters in the country. This altered the demand, usage, and parking patterns for paid underground bicycle parking.

Located in an integrated public development building called Kampung Admiralty, SecureMyBike was launched in 2018 to provide cyclists with a safe and weatherproof parking option for their two-wheelers. However, the project was halted after two years as the fees collected from customers could not cover its operating costs.

SecureMyBike was initially launched to complement existing surface-level bicycle parking to promote cycling, particularly for short-distance commutes within Singapore’s Admiralty area.

When the project was rolled out in 2018, however, an LTA spokesman had acknowledged in a report that the setting up an underground parking system was a pricey affair.

The SecureMyBike project cost about S$4.7 million (US$3.5 million) and took four years to build. It had fully automated sensors, which could detect if users exceeded the permitted weight limit of 35 kilograms. A motion sensor also prevents living objects from being put into the cells.

Users had to pay a monthly fee of S$48 (US$36) or an hourly rate of S$0.45 (US$.0.34) for this service, which was considered expensive by certain customers. At the  time of the launch, 16-year-old Muhd Khairul Ihsan, a student of the Institute of Technical Education, told The Straits Times that he would use the parking facilities if the monthly fee was the price for a whole year.

“The Singaporean way of doing things is sometimes too restricted by old standards and bureaucracy,” Smartcity’s Navarro said. He added that the country’s work culture can also be a hindrance when implementing new and innovative solutions.

Despite the failure of SecureMyBike and his opinion on  the work culture, Navarro still plans to collaborate with the government.