Police seen 'throwing' Anywheel bicycles onto grass outside MBS due to massive crowd on New Year's Eve
Anywheel bicycles were removed by the police outside Marina Bay Sands (MBS) for public safety due to the massive crowd on New Year's Eve.
A Stomper said the bicycles were blocking the footpath towards Helix Bridge.
"A member of the public made a police report after encountering the Anywheel bicycles obstructing pedestrian walkways and creating a safety hazard during peak crowd movement," said the Stomper.
"According to eyewitness accounts, the situation escalated to the point where police officers had to take immediate emergency action, physically removing multiple Anywheel bicycles from pedestrian paths and pushing them into nearby bushes to prevent crowd bottlenecks and potential injuries.
"Police officers were seen throwing Anywheel bicycles onto the grass en masse."
In response to a Stomp query, a spokesperson for Anywheel said the bike-sharing company did not receive any notice from the police to remove bicycles during the countdown event.
"Every year-end, we work closely with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to manage areas expected to experience high footfall, as public safety is important to us," explained the spokesperson.
Instructions were given by LTA to remove all Anywheel bicycles from the event area at Marina Bay by 6pm on Dec 31. A WhatsApp group chat was set up between LTA and the company to coordinate any emergency removals of bicycles if needed.
"Our ground team was also present on Dec 31 to help ensure smooth on-site operations," said the spokesperson, who shared a timeline for what happened on New Year's Day itself.
8am: Anywheel posted on social media platforms informing Anywheel users not to park bicycles in the event area.
12pm to 6pm: Anywheel removed all Anywheel bicycles from the event area.
6pm to 9pm: Anywheel staff members were on standby on the grounds and were proactively clearing Anywheel bicycles in the area that they come across.
9pm: Anywheel received a phone call from the police requesting for LTA's point of contact with regards to bicycle sharing as they understood that LTA and Anywheel had an existing communication channel with regards to urgent Anywheel bicycle removals and that they are unable to contact HelloRide.
The spokesperson reiterated: "Both police and LTA have never informed Anywheel directly to remove any Anywheel bicycles besides the general direction prior to the event."
Rival bike-sharing company HelloRide told Stomp: "We were instructed to not deploy any bicycles there.
"However, there will inevitably be bicycles in the midst of riding or users who want to return our bicycles there.
"All residual bicycles of ours were cleared promptly within the hour. We had nine ground staff member stationed there until 2am on Jan 1 after the countdown."
On Dec 28, the police had issued an advisory for those attending New Year's Eve events that said: "Members of the public are strongly advised not to cycle in the vicinity of Marina Bay and Kallang Basin as the area will be congested and the risk of causing hurt to self and others in the event of a collision is high."
