EDITORIAL - Better safe than sorry

Cycling became an alternative form of transportation during the worst of the pandemic lockdowns a few scant years ago when public transport was grounded. As a result, bike lanes were established in many parts of the city. Also as a result, many have decided to stick to cycling as a form of transport or for leisure until today.

But according to Cebu City’s Sugbo Bike Lanes Board (SBLB), many cyclists seem to have forgotten or are disregarding one of the most basic of safety precautions; wearing a helmet.

While the enforcers did apprehend cyclists not wearing helmets, this rule was relaxed after a while, and more and more people on bicycles decided to do away with wearing a helmet altogether.

Now the SBLB is mulling requiring them to wear helmets again.

If what the SBLB says is true, the number of those using bicycles in Cebu City is increasing. A three-day survey from June 29 to July 1 this year saw a total of 15,252 cyclists using the different bike lanes in the city, the same period last year only saw 13,364.

With this is it should only be right to require those on bicycles to wear helmets, not just those who go on a bicycle for the fun of it, but also those who get on them to go to work and to get back home.

Above all else safety must be considered, the road is by no means a safe place to be. It’s busy, noisy and, most of all, dangerous. Just recently two people were killed in two separate road accidents. And while those accidents didn’t involve bicycles, they show that accidents can happen at any time and anywhere.

We can also not discount how many people are given to reckless driving or even road rage nowadays. Look online, there is no shortage of videos showing such drivers.

As the old adage goes: it’s better to be safe than to be sorry. Unlike injuries to other parts of the body, head injuries tend to be more serious if not outright fatal.