Riders slam motorcycle lanes

MANILA, Philippines—An organization of motorcycle aficionados on Monday asked the court to halt what it described as the “unconstitutional” designation of motorcycle lanes on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.

According to the Motorcycle Rights Association (MRA), the Quezon City Council, which approved Ordinance No. SP-1836, S-2008, has no jurisdiction over Commonwealth Avenue, a national road.

The MRA, through its chair Jobert Christian Bolaños, said that only the Department of Transportation and Communications was authorized to enforce such a law as he asked the court to declare the ordinance void and unconstitutional.

In the same pleading which was filed with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, the group pushed for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and a writ of preliminary injunction (a court order that requires an individual to perform, or restrains him from performing, a particular act) against the enforcers of the ordinance.

Named as respondents in the case were Mayor Herbert Bautista representing the Quezon City government, the city council, the city’s Department of Public Order and Safety, Quezon City Police District, Land Transportation Office and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

The ordinance on the designation of motorcycle lanes on Commonwealth Avenue was passed three years ago by the city council although it was enforced only recently by the MMDA which designated the fourth lane from the sidewalk as the motorcycle lane on the so-called “killer highway.”

“Petitioner submits that no matter how compelling the reason is and acute the traffic problem might be [on] Commonwealth Avenue as to reach a strangulation point, the solution does not lie in limiting and restricting the access of motorcycle riders to the fourth lane of Commonwealth Avenue which only creates and brings undue and greater risk,” the group said.

It added that the designation of a motorcycle lane, with riders at risk of being penalized if caught outside the special lane, was “clearly unreasonable, arbitrary and discriminatory.”

“The undue limitation and restriction imposed against the motorcycle riders by the assailed ordinance only increases the risk involved and places them [in a situation where they could] suffer more harm contrary to what has been erroneously perceived by the city council and the MMDA,” the group claimed.

Bolaños pointed out that motorcycle riders needed to move about to avoid any obstacles and contact with other vehicles and objects.

Reducing the riders’ ability to maneuver their vehicles may lead to more accidents as they would be forced to stick to the designated lane “no

matter whatever situations may confront them while travelling for fear of being tagged with a violation.”

“This is [also] not to mention that trucks, buses, jeepneys, etc., whose designated lane is beside the ‘motorcycle lane’ are perennial smoke belchers, putting the motorcycle riders and their passengers not only in more [physical] danger but [their health at risk as well],” the group said.

Monday marked the first day of the strict implementation of the motorcycles lanes in two major thoroughfares in Metro Manila—the fourth lane from the sidewalk on Commonwealth Avenue and the innermost lane on Macapagal Avenue in Pasay City.

The Inquirer contacted the MMDA but assistant general manager for operations Emerson Carlos declined to comment, saying he had yet to read the petition filed by the MRA.

Originally posted: 1:57 pm | Monday, October 24th, 2011