LTA's full official reply:
We refer to your email on 17 April 2013 to REACH.
We appreciate and share your concerns for the well being of all road users, be they pedestrians, cyclists or motorists. Public roads are intended to be used by all road users, including cyclists and pedestrians. They are built and maintained using public funds collected from general taxes, including those who do not use motorised vehicles. All road users should use the roads responsibly with consideration for other road users. To have safer roads, we are reaching out via public education together with the Traffic Police as well as the Safe Cycling Task Force.
To share with you, like most other countries, LTA does not license bicycles. This is because majority of the people may use bicycles for leisure or recreational purposes. Thus, it is administratively cumbersome to licence and maintains the registration records of bicycles for the purpose of road tax collection.
Having exempted bicycles from registration requirements in Singapore since 1982, its re-introduction would not only be viewed as regressive but will unnecessarily subject bicycle owners to onerous requirements. At the same time, it does not sufficiently protect other road users due to the difficulty of enforcing such requirements. Licensing is therefore neither practical nor cost-effective. Developed countries like UK, Japan, USA, EU countries, Australia and New Zealand also do not require the registration of bicycles.
Apart from traffic measures we need the co-operation of all road users to create a safe travelling environment. Through its public education programmes, the Traffic Police (TP) has been constantly reminding motorists to drive carefully and look out for other motorists and pedestrians on roads. These public education efforts will be stepped up to remind all road users to play their part to make our roads safe for all. We have copied TP and the Singapore Road Safety Council (SRSC) in this email for their attention.
We thank you for your feedback. If you have other feedback on land transport related issues, please call our 24-hour Customer Service Hotline at 1800- CALL LTA (1800- 2255582) or send a SMS to 77LTA (77582).