Hoping for the best

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City Council last week approved the ordinance creating shared priority bike lanes or bike-friendly lanes in the city.(BTW, the correct word should be “bicycle”, not “bike”, since the latter is more associated with Harley’s and the like)

I don’t know if I should be happy or sad.

Maybe I should be happy that I, and thousands more using our bicycles on public roads, would finally be riding on our own space in “selected” streets without having to worry about jeepneys and pedestrians.

Maybe I should be sad because it’s not true that bicycle lanes could provide a safe haven when we are on the 1.5m of legal space considering the degree of implementation our traffic officers are known to enforce.

Believe me, I dream of bicycle lanes and I hope that I can see real bicycle lanes in my lifetime. But if traffic officers can’t even implement “No Parking”, “One Way”, “No Stopping”, etc, how in God’s good name can they implement the bicycle friendly lanes? If a wayward jeepney could hit my office secretary when she was walking along the sidewalk, what type of guarantee can a bicycling commuter get?

It’s my opinion that this ordinance is too narrow and too selfish. Who’s the next group to ask next for their personal needs over the majority? The sidewalk vendors? The squatters? Or those homeowners who’d just want to extend their domicile not only to the sidewalk but also beyond it?

To make this ordinance work, we need the leaders to do the “trangko” or set the pace for this ordinance. They just can’t pen the law and then drive in their air-conditioned SUV’s to go to work.  So I’m throwing a challenge to Cebu City Councilor Nida Cabrera and her staff to put their money on their collective mouthsare by getting on their roadie, MTB, fixie, foldings or whatever human powered machine to City Hall to work. I’m not asking much, just 52 times a year, that’s once a week.

I’m a believer in bicycle lanes, but let’s look at the bigger picture, it’s not the only traffic problem Cebu City has. I have always been consistent in my stand: Implement all the traffic laws to thefullest and we won’t need any bicycle lane ordinance.

October Blues

Last month was just freakish for cycling. Lots of bad incidents happened to cyclists. Rommel Lim broke his arm during a race. Former pro Nilo Barbalose was hit hard from behind by a motorcycle and broke both his jaws and his collar-bone. Both had undergone surgery already and are on the mend. However, it wasn’t all a happy ending as another friend, George Guinitaran, passed away after what probably was a stroke while on his bicycle.

Then there was this Kenyan rider, John Njoroge Muya, who died after a head on collision with a car that entered the race column after disregarding the orders from race marshalls during the Tour of Matabungkay. Incidentally, John was wearing the overall’s leaders jersey when the tragedy happened. (FREEMAN)