Safety for Active Mobility Users

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Singapore's road deaths are rising. The answer isn't more cameras.

March 24, 2026

Singapore does not lack enforcement. The question is whether enforcement, speed policy, and road design are working together as a fail-safe system. Singapore recorded 149 road deaths in 2025 — the fourth consecutive year of rising fatalities and a 10-year high. The policy response has been familiar: more speed cameras, higher fines, and public education campaigns urging road users to be more careful. These measures are not without value. Enforcement and education influence behaviour and signal social norms. But evidence from Singapore and other global cities suggests a crucial distinction: Enforcement changes behaviour temporarily. Road design and speed policy change behaviour permanently. The cities that have successfully reduced road deaths over long periods did not choose one or the other. They combined enforcement, lower speeds, and safer street design — but they placed the greatest emphasis on the measures that work continuously, not intermittently. Eight cities, one consistent pa...

Why Our Crossings Feel Unsafe And How We Can Fix It

March 02, 2026

If you are an older pedestrian in Singapore, or a parent holding a child’s hand, you may have noticed something unsettling. The very place where the law tells you to cross, the designated pedestrian crossing, no longer feels completely safe. You wait for the green man. You look left and right. You step forward because the signal says you can. Yet you still feel the need to scan every approaching car, just in case a driver does not stop. That feeling is not irrational. It reflects a deeper shift in how we think about responsibility on our roads. And it is worth asking whether that shift has gone too far. The Rise of “Shared Responsibility” For years, public messaging has emphasised that road safety is everyone’s responsibility. Drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, riders. All must be careful. On the surface, that sounds reasonable. But it also smooths over an uncomfortable fact: a car can cause far greater harm than a person on foot. When something goes wrong, the pedestrian almost always su...

Duty of Care: the missing Road Safety Message

February 14, 2026

For years, road safety campaigns have relied on a comfortable, symmetrical logic. We are told that "Safety is everyone's responsibility" and that "It takes two hands to clap." These phrases suggest a partnership of equals, where a motorist and a elderly pedestrian share the same burden of preventing a tragedy. At SAMU, we believe it is time to challenge this narrative. While the sentiment of mutual respect is valuable, the physics of the road tell a different story. When we treat a two-ton vehicle and a fifteen-kilogram bicycle as equal stakeholders in safety, we ignore the reality of risk and the fundamental "Duty of Care" that comes with operating a powerful machine. The Two Dimensions of Responsibility To have a honest conversation about safety, we must separate responsibility into two distinct categories: 1. For me: The Responsibility for Self-Preservation This applies to every person on the road. Whether you are walking, cycling, or driving, you ...

A New Perspective on Road Safety: Building a Road System That Protects Everyone

February 11, 2026

When we talk about road safety, the conversation usually centers on behavior. We speak about "better drivers," "paying attention," and "following the rules." While individual responsibility is important, this approach overlooks a fundamental truth of human nature: people make mistakes. In most areas of our lives—whether it is the design of a workplace, a kitchen appliance, or a hospital—we expect the system to have built-in safeguards. If a person slips or forgets a step, we want the environment to prevent that minor error from turning into a tragedy. For decades, however, our roads have been the exception. We have built high-speed environments and then expected humans to navigate them with absolute perfection. This is where the concept of Systematic Safety, often called Sustainable Safety, comes in. It represents a fundamental shift in how we think about our streets and highways. Moving Beyond Blame The core idea of systematic safety is simple: the road s...

Why It’s Time to Rethink Safety on Our Streets and Paths?

February 10, 2026

Welcome to the Safety for Active Mobility Users (SAMU) Blog We are a registered society in Singapore with one clear mission: to champion the safety of everyone who walks, cycles, or rides on our public paths and roads. Whether you commute daily by bicycle, take a morning walk to the market, or depend on a personal mobility device for work, you likely share our concerns. Our paths are crowded, our roads often feel unsafe, and our regulations seem to shift faster than we can keep up. The “Whack-a-Mole” Cycle In 2019, Singapore banned e-scooters from footpaths after attempts at “gracious sharing” fell short. Now, in 2025, similar restrictions are being introduced for mobility scooters (PMAs), including new medical certification requirements and a speed limit of 6 km/h. While SAMU supports meaningful safety measures, this recurring “whack-a-mole” approach addresses symptoms rather than root causes. The core issue lies in a system that places users with vastly different speeds and masses - ...