Puerto Princesa enacts bike ordinance
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY –– The city government here has institutionalized the use and promotion of bicycles as it tries to be a “bike travel-friendly city.”
Councilor Nesario Awat, chairman of City Council Committee on Legal Matters and author of the ordinance (SDO No. 64-2020), said that being a “tourist destination city,” the move was “good for the health, environment-friendly, and economical.”
The enacted ordinance, which hurdled its third and final reading after sitting at the Council for two years, sought to establish a “Puerto Princesa-based bike club or organization” and designated a 1.5-meter bicycle lane on all the major and city roads.
Awat said the bike lanes would “not be exclusive” pointing out that most roads in the city were limited to only two-lanes.
The local law has vested the City Engineering Office (CEO) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to identify and mark 1.5 meters from the outer lane going to the inner lane as a “priority lane” for cyclists.
To further strengthen the bikers’ safety, a “safe distance” rule required motor vehicle drivers with no less than five-meter distance on the rear and one-meter distance on the side while traversing the roads with cyclists.
The biking tourism program with travel and tour operators, and the City Tourism Office (CTO), would establish “bike stations and bike tours” in the city.
A “bike-to-work” program was birthed to promote biking among city government employees.
A “bicycle loan window” may be availed by the government workers, who are keen on procuring bicycles as a means of transport to work. The said loan would bear zero-interest and may be automatically deducted on the employee’s monthly salary.
A similar program for students, “bike to school,” especially for students in the far-flung communities, would soon be established in “strategic partnership” with the Department of Education (DepEd) and City Sports Office.
The “cycling infrastructure” provisions would also soon be integrated on the “master development plan” of the city to ensure that “proper planning and coordination” on future urban development projects will include the welfare of the bikers.
