Green transport can also be considered as an alternative form for transportation within campus. Sustainable transport refers to any vehicle that has a low impact on the environment, and is fuel-efficient. Such transport is not only efficient, but also convenient for individuals like staff who is required to travel extensively on campus (E.g. staff from the Office of Campus Security, the Office of Estate and Development etc). It can also be used as a means of transport for students or academic staff living on campus.

An experimental study with an electric “bikeboard” (E-Bikeboard) was conducted to test the terrain and safety of riding along the roads at Kent Ridge Campus. Powered by 2 lithium-ion rechargeable batteries, the E-bikeboard is capable of travelling up to 35 km/hr; with 3 speed controls for the user to choose from according to his needs or road type (E.g. up slope, during heavy traffic conditions, etc).

The experiment started from the entrance of NUS, towards University Hall (UHall) via Kent Ridge’s slope, with a u-turn back to the Office of Estate and Development. As this vehicle is not approved for riding on the roads by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), it had to be used on pedestrian pavement.

It was noticed that the width of the pavement is not wide enough for sharing with other pedestrians. The horn provided on the e-bikeboard was also not very useful as a warning device to pedestrians as people tend to confuse the sound with that from a car. As safety is an important factor, measures need to be taken to ensure that both pedestrians and riders either have a separate route to use, or rules be applied to both users for road safety. Overall, it was not difficult to manoeuvre the bikeboard around the curves of the pavements; going uphill was not a problem either. The main difficulty was to get the bikeboard up the kerbs, which were plentiful within our pavement infrastructure. As the bikeboard is 35kg, it is not practical for a petite female to physically heave it up a kerb. Therefore, the few critical measures (in order of importance) to be taken before allowing similar electric bike-boards on campus are: 1.   Width of Pavements 2.   Smooth roads (minimal kerbs) 3.   Traffic rules for both pedestrians and riders 4.   Shelter and parking