ONE of the most practical and usable projects of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) under Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade is the construction in Metro Manila of the Philippines’ longest bicycle lane network — all 313 kilometers of it.
The DOTr, in a statement, announced that the bike lane network cuts through 12 cities: Pasig, Marikina, Quezon City, Caloocan, Manila, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Makati, Pasay, Las Piñas, Parañaque, and Taguig. The bike lanes are between 1.5 and 3 meters in width depending on the road’s configuration. The Metro Manila Bike Lane Network forms part of the completed 497 kilometers of bike lanes created in Metro Cebu and in Metro Davao.
Secretary Tugade said that the Metro Manila bike lanes use concrete delineators and flexible rubber bollards to separate the bikers from motor vehicles. The bike lanes also make use of white and green pavement markings using thermoplastic paint, bollards bolted to the ground, bike symbols and signage, solar-powered road studs, and bike racks. The bike lane network can accommodate 1,250 cyclists per hour for every meter of road space.
‘Motorcycle riders and bikers
have been observed to flout traffic regulations and even the most basic of driving rules — just to be ahead of other motorists.’
While the government continues to improve the speed and safety of land transportation by having reliable traffic lights system, well-engineered streets and thoroughfares, and now, exclusive bike lanes which were even lauded by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) as “game changer,” all these will be for naught if they are not used properly.
Motorcycle riders and bikers have been observed to flout traffic regulations and even the most basic of driving rules — just to be ahead of other motorists. The long stretch of bike lane along Taft Ave. from Vito Cruz to United Nations Ave. has a bike lane designated by blue paint, but no two-wheel vehicle is using it. Bikers and riders choose to slip in between cars and trucks on Taft Avenue which necessarily had been narrowed to make way for the unused bike lane. Does Mayor Isko Moreno know about this, or has he ever travelled leisurely, without his “wang-wang” entourage, to notice Taft Ave. looking this way?
The sad part here is that a driver who inadvertently uses this lane will be flagged down by overeager MTPB traffic enforcers whose everyday routine is to accost supposed violators at the traffic light in front of the Philippine General Hospital.
In another bike lane — the one on Ortigas Avenue from La Salle Greenhills to Santolan Road in San Juan City — is definitely well managed and the bikers are generally disciplined. Why couldn’t this be replicated in other cities of the metropolis?
DOTr Assistant Secretary for Road Transport and Infrastructure Development Mark Steven Pastor said that other parts of Metro Manila will have their own bike lanes soon. We just hope that they will follow the San Juan model and veer away from the failed bike lane project of Manila.
You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink if it does not want to. But true policemen and traffic enforcers can force these violators to use the bike lanes on pain of arrest.
