Roads for bicycle riders proposed
Vice Mayor Jed Mabilog has proposed a resolution requesting the City Mayor to utilize the whole of the still unnamed road being constructed connecting the Carpenters Bridge in Mandurriao to Forbes Bridge in La Paz, Iloilo City into a bicycle road. This is to promote bicycle as an environment-friendly mode of transportation that could significantly reduce traffic congestion and decrease the use of motorized vehicles which dump so much ozone-harming and disease causing fuel emissions.
It was observed that bicycle users have increased in number in the city and the designation of a bicycle road is a necessity for the safety of the bicycle riding public. The move of Vice Mayor Mabilog is welcomed by environmentalists and bicycle enthusiasts in Iloilo City. Aside from economic reasons, the use of bicycle is a good exercise for physical fitness.
Foreign cities such as Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tokyo, Japan and Beijing, China have been using bicycles as their mode of transportation. Lately, New York City was awarded the 2009 Sustainable Transport Award after the mega-city has embarked on an Eco-Mobility agenda which embraced biking and walking as investment-worthy transportation alternative.
Big cities in the Philippines such as Quezon City, Makati City, Naga City and Marikina City have created bicycles lanes in their cities for the same reason.
The unnamed road which stretches almost 3 kilometers from Carpenter’s Bridge to Forbes Bridge is a better alternative to bicycle-riding public who travel for work and leisure. Mabilog finds it necessary for Iloilo City, being a member of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, to support the Eco-Mobility or Eco-Tourism Program which promotes non-motorized means of transportation like cycling to improve the health and urban environment and to mitigate global warming.