As the one year trial period for bicycles sharing pedestrian pavements is coming to an end in May, the internet and newspaper forums are again peppered with articles about cyclists.

The usually letters of drivers complaining about cyclists on the road, and pedestrians complaining about cyclists on the pavements. While I will agree with most of these letters about the specific irresponsible individuals they encountered, it also shows how Singaporeans are intolerant and discriminating towards others. There is a clear lack of understanding between various socio-economic groups in Singapore.

I got a more poignant view of this situation because I have just began motorcycle lessons, and forays into motorcycle forums in Singapore. One of the recent news articles that was picked up by the motorcycle forum is an article about a higher risk of death to passengers riding pillion behind P-plated riders.

For those not familiar with Singapore, newly licensed drivers and riders here need to put a probational plate on their vehicle for the first year. This plate begs for understanding from fellow riders, and is a magnet for ridicule and insults should the driver makes a mistake.

Basically, the transport authorities in Singapore released some statistics about motorcycle accidents, and the big news is how passengers riding pillion are disproportionately more likely to die in an accident, particularly if the rider was newly licensed.

Of course, the usual Singapore reaction is for a call to ban newly licensed riders from carrying pillon passengers, which is probably not a wholly bad idea. There is also a suggestion to ban the use of cargo boxes behind the motorcycles for the same type of riders. I assume that there must be some statistics about how the balance of the motorcycle becomes an issue with a cargo box, but nothing as such was mentioned in the article.

This has got the some motorcycle riders angered, for a few reasons. About a month ago, there were two high profile traffic accidents involving cars driven by new drivers, which ended up with quite a few deaths. This gives motorcycle riders the ammunition to claim that if they cannot carry passengers, surely new car drivers should not either, perhaps rightly so.

This is compounded by the fact that motorcycles are by and large an economic choice in Singapore, as opposed to a lifestyle choice. The vast majority of motorcycle riders ride because it is the only affordable means of personal transport; cars in Singapore are notoriously high priced. As certain minority race groups tend to be on a lower income bracket, and thus have a higher proportionate representation in motorcycle riding, any rule that appears to discriminate against motorcycles will touch a raw nerve with certain minority races and lower income citizens.

I have written that car drivers in Singapore do not treat bicycle riders as equals on the roads here. And having gotten a closer look at motorcycle riders, I believe that they feel similarly treated.

For the above-mentioned economic and perhaps racial reasons, motorcycle riders seem to be discriminated against by more than just car drivers. There are complaints that no petrol station pump attendant ever helps a motorcycle rider pump petrol, despite the fact that they pay the same rate and usually use a higher octane petrol (apparently they get full service in Thailand’s petrol stations). Establishments such as shopping malls also are attacked for not supply motorcycle parking lots. Some go as far as to reject motorcycle riders even if they are willing to pay a full car parking rate.

They too suffer from attacks in the newspaper for parking their motorcycles on pavements illegally, which they refute as the results of establishments not having enough or any lots of motorcycles.

Singapores are intolerant to their fellow countrymen. They are just interested in others who lead the same lifestyle as them and take every opportunity to snipe at other groups. At the end of the day, everyone is just trying to get on with life and make ends meet, a little basic courtesy and understand helps.