When New York-based Nick Whitaker, founding editor of Works in Progress magazine, visited Singapore, he was stunned to see a high-end road bike left unattended on the street.
He took to social media to share a photo of the yellow Pinarello Dogma F12 leaning against a wall, captioning it as "the ultimate Singapore culture shock: a bike left unattended."
The post quickly garnered over a million views, sparking a conversation about the glaring difference in crime rates between Singapore and the United States.
Watch the post below
Singapore's reputation for safety
Singapore, an island nation of 5.6 million people, is known for its stringent laws and low crime rates.
In 2021, it ranked third in The Economist Intelligence Unit's Safe Cities Index, just behind Copenhagen and Toronto.
The country's tough stance on even petty crimes has made it one of the safest places in the world. This reputation was further emphasized by travel writer Charlie Hub and finance professional Lyall Taylor, both of whom shared their own experiences of feeling safe in Singapore.
The viral post led to a flurry of comments from social media users, many of whom questioned why the U.S. couldn't achieve similar levels of safety.
Some argued that such a level of law and order should be the norm everywhere, likening the tolerance of routine crime to tolerating a poisoned water supply.
Others pointed out that the U.S. has fallen so low that the concept of civility has become incomprehensible to its citizens.
