MMDA launches bike lanes in Manila

MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) opened yesterday bicycle lanes along Roxas Boulevard and in Malate, Manila yesterday.

The MMDA said a 1.7-kilometer bicycle lane was opened from the Remedios Circle to the new Children’s Road Safety Park, which features miniature replicas of footbridges, rotundas, a church, and a pedestrian lane. MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said the park is “for educating children about basic traffic rules and regulations, as well as discipline... at least when they get older, they know what our traffic rules are.”

Another 550-meter bicycle lane was opened along Roxas Boulevard, from Quirino Avenue to the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

In an exclusive interview, Tolentino said he hopes the bicycle lanes will result in heightened consciousness about causes of traffic. “The basic tenet here is that our 5,000-plus kilometers of road network would not be able to accommodate the annual increase in the number of vehicles. We have to collectively realize that there are other modes of transport available.”

It’s also time to rethink, continued Tolentino, our “land use plan, transit nodes, and lack of modern transport systems.” He said we also have to change our “mindset of door-to-door delivery in terms of travel.”

Tolentino warned that vehicles parked in the bike lane would be towed away.

Free bike use on EDSA eyed

In addition to the Manila bicycle lane, the MMDA is set to pilot a bicycle program next month on a short stretch of EDSA in Makati City. Tolentino said some 48 newly acquired bicycles would be made available for people going to and from the Magallanes interchange and Ayala Avenue.

“In our study, we found out that there are thousands of passengers alighting in the Magallanes area going to the Ayala EDSA intersection,” he said. “Instead of them taking another bus ride, walking or taking the MRT, we might as well provide them with bikes.”

The bicycles can be used for free to go either way. Stubs will be issued to users, who are supposed to return the bikes at the other point. MMDA officers will oversee the operations. Tolentino said the bike riders should use the elevated sidewalk on EDSA, which will be fenced off for greater safety.

The MMDA chairman insisted the bicycle lane plans do not end there.

“The idea behind the bicycle lane proposal is to generate a lot of ideas and solutions pertaining not just to the way we travel – but how we approach health issues, environmental problems, and even disaster management,” he said. “I use the bicycle lane idea to unlock solutions to several other problems – including the way we transport our working force.”