The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will start construction of protected bike lanes along the entire stretch of Edsa, Manila’s busiest highway, to make the metropolis more inclusive and safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
The announcement finally puts to rest the monthlong debate as to which agency should spearhead road reforms to promote active transport: the DOTr, the MMDA or the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
On Wednesday, the DPWH said it was the transport department’s responsibility, as the former did not have discretionary funds to finance bike lanes initiatives.
In a statement, Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade said he and MMDA chair Danilo Lim had agreed to “fast-track the establishment of protected bike lanes on the roads and not on sidewalks.”
“As more people are shifting to this active mode of transport amid the crisis situation due to the coronavirus pandemic, our goal is to move people while making sure of their safety,” he added.
If the DOTr and the MMDA’s plans for at-grade protected lanes push through, it would be a walkback from the MMDA’s earlier vision to put up elevated bike lanes in the long-term.
Transport groups earlier assailed the MMDA’s interim plans, which would have only allocated a meter-wide segregated lane for cyclists on the sidewalk, and the rest for pedestrians.
“A lane width of only one meter is dangerous for cyclists. The Netherlands Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic requires a bike lane width of two meters, while the Indonesian Public Works standards stipulate a minimum bike lane width of 1.5 to 1.75 meters,” civil society coalition Move As One said in a statement.
Allowing bicycles to share in the road space, it added, “could move three to four times more people than the same space used by cars. EDSA would achieve much higher people throughout.”
Lim said the interim bike lanes would provide at least 1.5 meters of space for bikers on the road, not on the sidewalk.
Both agencies did not outline their long-term bike lane plans. But in the transformation design approach earlier released by the DOTr, the interim at-grade cycling lanes would take up the rightmost lane on the highway and are separated by bollards.
The DOTr had already downloaded P33 million in budget to the MMDA to implement their active transport plans.