Armed with placards and stickers bearing the message “stop stupid laws,” hundreds of motorcycle riders converged along EDSA early Sunday to protest a plan banning them from plying the major thoroughfare.
Manila mayors last week said they were studying the proposed policy to reduce the number of vehicles and road crash incidents in EDSA.
There is no law justifying the plan that would “discriminate” riders paying the same road tax as other motorists, Jobert Bolaños of the Motorcycle Riders Organization told ABS-CBN during his group’s protest at the EDSA People Power Monument.
Motorcycles, he added, are not prone to causing accidents and traffic jams because they are flexible and agile.
Protesters also slammed the intensified enforcement of the motorcycle or blue lanes along EDSA, which bar them from weaving in and out of traffic.
The policy endangers motorcycle riders as this gives them only 100 meters to exit EDSA, said Joseph Lomotan of the Batang Ilog Riders Club.
MOTORCYCLE-RELATED ACCIDENTS
Around 70,000 motorcycles traverse EDSA, data from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) showed.
In 2016, a total of 21,403 motorcycle-related accidents occurred in the metropolis, 238 of which were fatal. Some 17,800 accidents involving motorcycles have been recorded from January to October this year, said MMDA spokesperson Celine Pialogo.
“You all know that when there’s an accident along EDSA, it can occupy 2 lanes at most. We have to consider the response and rescue time, which could take about 20 to 30 minutes and that alone can cause traffic,” she told ABS-CBN News in Filipino.
The MMDA is still studying the motorcycle ban on EDSA, as instructed by Metro Manila mayors, she said.
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