Editor’s Note Ira Panganiban

Ira Panganiban Editor-in-Chief

EDITOR’S NOTE

THE WHY OF BICYCLE LANES

In the past six months, roads along Metro Manila have been seeing a drastic change.

The rightmost lanes are being repurposed into bicycle lanes in order to accommodate the increasing number of cyclists in the metropolis.

Experts and authorities like to call this the “active mobility” phenomenon. Active mobility is a new term coined worldwide to describe transport modes that use physical power to move simple machines.

And the best example of these machines is the bicycle. Of course there are others like skateboards, manual scooters, roller skates and rollerblades. The concept is a form of mobility that is faster than simply walking but uses the human body as the main propeller.

The active mobility phenomenon came about during the pandemic period, when public transportation became limited due to social distancing requirements. People then began using bicycles and other forms of manual transport to go to work or travel.

And since the bicycle is the best form of manual transport, it grew quite rapidly.

Civic groups then began to lobby for an exclusive space for bicycles on our road network because it simply was not safe for big cars and buses and trucks to share the road with bicycle.

Add to that the fact that most of our drivers do not really know the rules when it comes to dealing with cyclists beside their cars. They don’t even know how to deal with motorcycles after all.

So, the advent of bicycle lanes came about. And it is time we should say.

But the problem is the design of the bicycle lanes. What government regulators, MMDA and LGU’s, did was to simply cut half of the right most lane in half and designated the outer half as bicycle lanes and well nothing for the inner half.

Now, this became a puzzle for motorists, because there is a lane that has a wide line in the middle. A lane they can use but not on the bicycle side. So, we have cars straddling half a lane which is now a danger to both the cars on one side and the cyclists on the other.

What we are saying here is that, if we are to institute a bicycle lane for all our roads, we might as well construct it correctly to keep all users of the road safe.

There are numerous examples worldwide of successful bicycle lane programs we can emulate. We don’t have to, again, reinvent the program.

Why, because for many Filipinos, riding a bicycle to work, school, or just to travel about is about as much as they can afford and enjoy. Besides it also makes for a very healthy society if and when everyone gets into it.

And that is coming from a petrol head like us here at Autocar.

What we are saying here is that, if we are to institute a bicycle lane for all our roads, we might as well construct it correctly to keep all users of the road safe. ❞

✉ irapanganiban@wheelsph.com