With the General Community Quarantine in place, more and more people are now able to get back to work (when permitted), and the roads slowly getting back to being congested. Since mass transport is still operating at limited capacity, there are also a lot of Filipinos that are forced to ride bicycles to avoid the crowds and delays of public transport. To help these commuters and encourage their opting for the greener solution, EDSA will be one of the major thoroughfares of Metro Manila that will have dedicated bicycle lanes.
Unfortunately, some motorists — especially motorcycle riders — see the 1.5-meter bike lane as an overtaking lane or passing lane. They frequently use it when filtering through the heavy traffic.
EDSA boss, Edison “Bong” Nebrija wants to reminded motorists, through his social media page, that they should respect the new bike lane. Under no circumstance should it be used by motorized vehicles. Erring motorists will be pulled over and told of their mistake. The MMDA has yet to indicate if these motorists will be ticketed.
“With the temporary paint designating the future bike lane on EDSA, we are slowly educating motorists not to pass on it and give due courtesy to bikers,” said Nebrija.
On June 13, the MMDA began marking the right-most lane — to be used as a bicycle lane — with pink paint. This is intended to show motorists where on the road it will be and how wide it will be when completed. Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has been busy preparing EDSA for the relocation of the bus lane to the leftmost lane, closer to the MRT tracks.
“It’s mutual respect among road users that we need to promote for a responsible and safe road sharing scheme.”
The EDSA bicycle lane will be at least 1.5-meters in width. To accommodate this, existing lanes for private vehicles will be reduced to 2.8-meters from the current 3.5-meters. For now, there is no concrete plan yet for the motorcycle lane, as the priority is the establishment of the bus lane to the left and bicycle lane to the right.
