What’s The Go with Abandoned Bicycles in Singapore?

• 

  Smashed Avo on 21/11/2018 - 01:26

  What causes this phenomenon?? And why don’t we see this is Australia?

  In Singapore, crime and punishment is very, very different from a civilized society. You can literally be hung. As in, that barbaric "Lynch Mob" execution style.

  Steal a bike over there? You'll probably be caned. Literally flogged with a cane, possibly in a public space.

  Steal a bike in Australia? Get fined in absolute worst case scenario.

  The stakes are entirely different, even by petty thief criminal standards you'd need to have more than a few screws loose to steal a shitty rusted up bicycle with that hanging over your head. So they sit there forever.

  • 

    pegaxs on 21/11/2018 - 01:30

    +1

    I get the penalty system. I’m not talking about “why don’t they get stolen”. I get that part.

    I’m wondering, why do so many of them just get abandoned. Why is there this culture of riding somewhere, locking your bike to a pole and then saying… “you know what? I don’t want that bike, lock or chain back ever again.” And just leaving it there and never coming back to get it.

    • 

      Smashed Avo on 21/11/2018 - 01:48

      +1

      I get the penalty system. I’m not talking about “why don’t they get stolen”. I get that part.

      That's the reason they accrue to such numbers.

      Objects get abandoned all the time. I see abandoned cars sometimes driving around Melbourne, people abandon things that are worth AT LEAST a few hundred bucks in parts + scrap metal, so imagine how many shitty $10-$50 bicycles end up going by the wayside.

      People move interstate, people move overseas, sometimes it's because a family member got sick and they dropped everything. People go to hospital themselves, people have mental breakdowns, people get hit by cars and die.

      Singapore is a city of five and a half MILLION people. Things happen.

      Life moves on and not all of the loose ends are tied up.

      Again, per capita a similar or higher number of bikes get abandoned here in Aus, they just go walkabouts after a local with shaky morals and a boltcutter notices they've been sitting there for a week or two.

      • 

        mskeggs on 21/11/2018 - 06:45

        In Sydney there are council staff who act to remove dumped bikes. Maybe SG doesn’t fund this?
        I know even with this clean up crew it can be a month or longer a wheel-less frame can be left chained to a light pole in Pitt st.

  • 

    BudgetAce on 21/11/2018 - 15:47

    Hmm… I'm not sure what is the definition of a "civilized society" ??

    Child rapist are released early from jail to rape another 7 year old and what is the most that will happen to that rapist ? sent back to jail… and probably released earlier the next time too…

    Men who rape women are sent to jail, just to be released before their sentence is up and rape more women (Melb) and the cycle continues…

    Homeless man who punch an infant in a pram (in Hyde park) just to beg to be sent to jail so they have shelter and food…

    Drivers who are on drugs kills families and are found to be "not in the right state of mind" and let off with a driving license suspension…

• 

  [Deactivated] on 21/11/2018 - 02:24

  +3

  Those you photographed dont look very abandoned. Just shitty and worn, as any bike should be unless you want it pinched.

  • 

    HighAndDry on 21/11/2018 - 09:55

    I was going to say the same thing - just by the fact most of them are upright, I'd say they haven't been there that long. Most abandoned abandoned bikes are usually hanging by a chain, or just lying on the ground. I assume SG govt does clean those up as actually abandoned bikes if left too long.

    • 

      pegaxs on 21/11/2018 - 11:51

      The problem is that the photos just don't really show what I was looking at in person.

      I didn't take any photos of bikes that looked like they had even minor use. The photos make them look so much better than what they were. Need to turn that beauty filter down, perhaps?? :D

      These were bikes that I noticed that didn't move or go anywhere for the almost 2 weeks I was here. Same bikes, same spot.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 21/11/2018 - 07:03

  +3

  What did a friendly local say when you asked them? ☺️

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 21/11/2018 - 08:10

    +2

    Go on to CheapCheapLah and make a thread to ask about it

  • 

    pegaxs on 21/11/2018 - 11:53

    I asked some of the locals and they just said "don't know" or had "never noticed it before".

    One taxi driver did get very animated about it and said something about lazy Singaporeans not cleaning up their rubbish.

• 

  Flying Ace on 21/11/2018 - 08:11

  +2

  Here's a story from Channel News Asia about the problem:

  https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/putting-the-b…

  • 

    pegaxs on 21/11/2018 - 11:55

    Wow. Awesome link! This is what it is all about. Going to link that in the thread post. Thanks.

• 

  hawkeye on 21/11/2018 - 09:13

  +3

  It's because they can't chew gum so they need another trademark to leave on the footpath.
  The idea of locking it is in the hope it will stay as long as the gum would have.
  Singaporean Chew Yen Wrigley first thought of the idea in 1992.

  • 

    kahn on 21/11/2018 - 09:51

    They can't leave gum on the footpath, but they they leave gum on a bike that's on a footpath. The bikes are a legal loophole. Seriously though, with Singapore's low tax rates, you would expect social services like cleaning up litter to be underfunded.

    • 

      HighAndDry on 21/11/2018 - 09:57

      +1

      Seriously though, with Singapore's low tax rates, you would expect social services like cleaning up litter to be underfunded.

      Singapore has by far some of the world's best social services… this "low tax rates = bad public services" is honestly just an over-used boogeyman at this point. Compared to Australia's, their government services are far better, not to mention a lot easier to navigate and actually use.

      • 

        kahn on 21/11/2018 - 12:43

        Do you have any ideas why that's the case? Low tax evasion, strong enforcement, low government corruption, etc?

        • 

          HighAndDry on 21/11/2018 - 13:14

          @kahn: Singapore has a…. Costco mentality as it comes to tax revenue I feel like. It's a strange analogy, but it's basically: Low rate of taxes, but it attracts a higher volume of taxable activity.

          They're also very strictly meritocratic (in culture), and due to geopolitical realities of it being a small country, next to and dependent on much larger, more chaotic neighbour (Malaysia), having little to no natural resources, it has to be strictly meritocratic for self-preservation. (Also why it has mandatory military service).

          That probably leads naturally to much more efficient government processes, a lack of tolerance for corruption (not that it doesn't happen, but people will think twice if the max penalty is death and not just a fine), and a strong respect for the law and stringent punishments.

• 

  Ocker on 21/11/2018 - 10:54

  The fact they are chained to fixtures would indicate (to me) they are not "abandoned" - if you wanted to dump them why would you go to the expanse of a chain and lock?

  More likely the owners live in an apt. and don't have the storage space for the bike, so they park them securely some place nearby.

  • 

    pegaxs on 21/11/2018 - 11:38

    While I acknowledge that some are in this state, a lot of them are not. Most of them are in no state to be ridden and have been there for years. I'm talking even the locks and chains are rusted. Not something that happens even from occasional use.

    I'm not talking about bikes that are parked, I'm talking about the obvious abandoned bikes. There are literally thousands of them in the small area that I have been staying. Even when I go into the city or anywhere else, there are these bikes everywhere…

• 

  BudgetAce on 21/11/2018 - 11:32

  +1

  Having lived and worked in Singapore for more than 10 years. There is a simple explanation. Before the great migrant explosion in Singapore which took it's population from 2.5 - 5.6 million. The people there used Bicycles as recreation vehicles. Other than at the parks, you would not see bicycles everywhere.

  The focus on bringing in migrant to grow the GDP numbers, i.e. more people equates to more people spending money and paying taxes increasing the Govt tax pot.

  This brought with it another problem. Large swaths of people who in their home country are used to the bicycle as their daily vehicle of choice. Thus the great growth of the bicycle came along.

  What you see now is the evolution. With the introduction of FREE bicycle rentals of Ofo, Mobike, etc. These same people have access to newer bikes located everywhere (literally), these FREE bikes are all over the footpath everywhere. And no longer need to bring their own bikes and worry about maintaining them. Thus dumping them.

  • 

    pegaxs on 21/11/2018 - 11:46

    This makes sense. Most of these bikes have some sort of issue. Missing or broken parts. Only a very small fraction of them look ridable.

    My only guess was that the bike was parked and locked up because it had a problem. The owner took a Mobike or Ofo home and never went back to get their old bike because a new one was cheaper.

    It still begs the question though, why go to the bother of locking it up with a lock and chain just to abandon it.

    As for Sydney, etc, no, I don't think this phenomenon would replicate here. If anything, all I see in Australia was the ride share bikes dumped all over the place, but that always going to be the case. But I don't think we would ever see the wide spread abandonment of locked up bikes here. People would just leave them on the street and it would just end up going missing…

• 

  BudgetAce on 21/11/2018 - 15:35

  +1

  Generally, the migrants who 1st arrived didn't buy very good bikes, you would see they are mostly made from iron and are quite heavy. Their daily practice is to ride them everywhere and when they reach home, they chain it up. Bearing in mind in Singapore, everyone lives in Flats or Apartments (No don't believe what you see in Crazy Rich Asians). So there is no space for them to store the bikes at home, thus they are usually chained to the nearest railing along the walkway near to home.

  Once the availability of FREE and newer rental bikes became available. These same people can't be bothered to dispose of their old bikes properly. Thus leaving them chained up along the railing next to walkways. Letting them rust. and obviously people who can get their hand on some parts to sell (remember iron and copper had some value a few years back), they would help themselves as well.

  The council in Singapore like our liberal Govt here. likes to outsource council function to private contractors, who are more than happy to take the money but not do the work. They would only take action after a formal compliant has been submitted, essentially telling them where to go and collect the bikes for disposal, else don't expect them to actively be on the lookout to clear the bikes. That is the result of outsourcing and privatisation….