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Long
before Fort Bonifacio was opened up for commercial
ventures and real-estate development, I went there on
Sundays for bike spins. The place did not have the best
roads then, but there were few vehicles on weekends and
the rolling terrain made it ideal for biking.
I was
happy that it was opened up for development since I
believe such a strategically located area with a big
acreage will contribute toward the metropolis’s economic
growth and expansion. Nowadays, high-rise, mid-rise and
low-rise buildings are sprouting all over the place. It
is gratifying that even with the buildings coming up,
the developers are putting a lot of open spaces so the
people who will live, work and visit the place will not
feel hemmed in by the urban sprawl of concrete all over.
As a
biker, I was also looking forward to well-paved roads so
fellow bike enthusiasts like me, as well as walkers,
joggers and other sports buffs, will have a better
environment to indulge our passions. Indeed, The Fort is
a walker’s and jogger’s haven with very wide sidewalks
they can use. You can hardly find sidewalks in most
parts of Metro Manila, that is why I appreciate the
effort of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority
(MMDA) to reclaim the sidewalks which rightfully belong
to the pedestrians, not for peddlers, hawkers and other
commercial use.
Visit
The Fort on weekends and you will see groups of bikers
and cyclists having fun just strolling or even holding
criterium races in the area. It would have been quite
ideal, except there are major roads inside The Fort
where there is a sign that reads “No biking allowed.”
One idyllic Sunday morning when I was biking there, a
security person on a motorcycle accosted me and informed
me that biking was not allowed in the particular street
I was traversing. But cars, vans and motorcycles are
okay. And so I had to move out of that street and go to
secondary routes in the area.
Okay,
maybe the developers do not want congestion in the major
streets and people on bicycles will just add to the
volume. For crying out loud, how much space does a bike
occupy? Or maybe they are concerned about the safety of
bikers being run over by motor vehicles. But I think
they should train their sights more on the motorcycle
riders who have sprouted on the roads like the
proverbial mushrooms, many of whom drive like they are
inside a motorcycle grand-prix circuit.
The “No
biking allowed” policy discriminates against individuals
who use the bicycle as a form of transport. Their number
is continuously growing due to the increasing cost of
fuel prices as well as fare rates. Have you noticed any
significant decrease in the price of gas the past two
weeks when the world price of oil dropped? The oil
companies go like speeding bullets in adjusting their
prices upward when the world price of oil increases, but
move slower than a turtle in downward adjustments.
The “No
biking allowed” policy also discriminates against the
environment since bicycles are one of the most
eco-friendly and sustainable means of transport. They do
not emit the noxious fumes that motorized vehicles spew,
contributing to a large measure to the metropolis’s
pollution level.
In Paris
and other French cities, self-service Velib’ bicycles
have been successfully put up as an alternative mode of
transport to ferry people around the metropolis. It has
been such a hit that other countries are looking at ways
on how to adopt the scheme to help decongest their
streets with the weary presence of motorized vehicles
that cause endless gridlocks, loss of useful hours,
inefficient use of nonrenewable fossil fuel and the high
level of pollution in the environment.
The
Marikina government under former mayor Bayani Fernando
put up bicycle lanes all over the city to offer its
people a means to use their bicycles to move around. It
would be great if Chairman Fernando’s MMDA, in
cooperation with the other city governments of the
metropolis, can put their heads together and consider
putting up bicycle lanes all over the metropolis to
offer the teeming masses of Metro Manilans another way
of moving about in our gridlock-prone city which is
already suffocated by too many motorized vehicles.
Instead
of the “No biking allowed” sign, is it not better for
the developers to put up a sign which reads “Share the
road” to encourage coexistence among those who use the
road, whether motorized vehicles or bicycles?
The author teaches at the Ramon V. del Rosario Sr.
Graduate School of Business of the De La Salle
University-Manila’s College of Business and Economics.
He welcomes comments at berinod@dlsu.edu.ph. |
