Biking club lends a hand – and a ride – to health workers

MANILA, Philippines — At first glance, Life Cycles PH seems like any other Facebook buy-and-sell group, this time bike enthusiasts or lifelong cyclists seeking out people who might have a need for a bicycle. “Anybody interested in borrowing this foldable bike?” a post would usually read, accompanied by a picture of the bike. “PM me.”

Except that this is no ordinary bicycle community. It sprang, almost spontaneously, within 48 hours after President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire island of Luzon under an enhanced community quarantine to better combat the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

With mass and public transportation suspended, both cyclists and the front-liners against the pandemic have turned to Facebook to borrow bikes from one another.

No strings attached, just return the bike when things get back to normal.

“[Grassroots initiatives] like these are important now because it’s hard to mobilize [our front-liners],” said Keisha Mayuga, transport planner and longtime cycling advocate. “The national government has devolved transport of health workers to the local governments, but the LGUs are having trouble getting them to work.”

The group now has 1,418 members since it started on March 17. Most of them are health workers desperate to get a ride to work; others are cyclists or bike enthusiasts willing to lend their wheelers.

P300K in 48 hours

Life Cycle’s function is two-pronged, Mayuga said. It’s a platform for linking up bike owners with health workers in need, as well as a means to connect to institutional partners, such as hospitals with staffers who have no private cars.

Within 48 hours the group was able to raise P300,000, which will be used to buy at least 65 bikes, Mayuga said.

The bikes will be donated to hospitals like St. Luke’s Medical Center (in Quezon City and Taguig City) and Rizal Memorial Hospital, which are all now specializing in COVID-19 cases.

But the second approach takes a longer time. “We still need to procure the bikes, and we need a supplier who can deliver amid the lockdown,” Mayuga said. Thus, the page is currently thriving on bike owners like RJ Fabella, 30, whose sense of civic duty was pricked upon learning that a number of health workers had been forced to walk long distances to be able to report for work.

“It seems the government only [imposed] a lockdown but didn’t provide enough means for them to get to work,” said Fabella, an IT professional from Makati City who also dabbles in other social development endeavors. “I took the initiative because I am a part of this community.”

RIDING OUT THE CRISIS Members of Life Cycles PH use social media to offer their bikes to health workers who often find themselves walking to and from work amid the Luzon-wide lockdown. The group’s website tweaks a popular slogan from the martial law era. —SCREENSHOTS FROM LIFE CYCLES PH FACEBOOK PAGE

Take ‘Ternie’

On Thursday afternoon, Fabella put up his wife’s bike—called “Ternie,” after its brand name—for borrowing on the page.

Within five minutes, a medical technologist living nearby had reached out to him. “I didn’t want to be overly strict about the requirements,” Fabella said, adding that he only asked her to show her ID. “Once everything was done, I told her she can borrow it as long as the lockdown is in effect.”

In Quezon City, “Grace,” 31, also put her sleek, black foldable wheeler up for grabs. A medical technologist from St. Luke’s Medical Center soon messaged her, asking if the bike was still free.

“He said he’d been walking from his home to the hospital during the last few days, but he had a bad leg,” Grace said. “It was quite pitiful to hear.”

Grace had the bike sent to the medical technologist via courier that same day. Later, he thanked her through a group post: “Thank you so much for lending your beloved bike! You didn’t even hesitate … You can trust me to take good care of your bike. Thanks so much, it would help me get to work.”

He bookended his message with #Bayanihan.

“Honestly, it seems as if we were largely unprepared for this crisis,” Grace said. “So what is there to do? If we see there are gaps, in our own little ways, let’s just try to fill them in. For a lot of people, [helping is] staying home. For me it’s lending my bike.”

Getting around the metro

In the process, Life Cycles PH also provided a glimpse of what Metro Manila would look like if biking became the dominant mode of transport.

Suddenly, biking was no longer just a leisure activity, but a vital means to get around a locked-down metropolis.

People saw that “biking is one of the best ways to get around the community, even now during a pandemic: you’re just alone, you’re not in contact with anybody else and you’re free to go around,” Mayuga observed.

Said Fabella: “In the long term, people would see this is a no-brainer solution to our problems, and everyone can try and do it. All we need is a little support from the government: investing in infrastructure, road safety laws.”

Hopefully, he said, this would get officials and citizens alike to drastically rethink the way urban life is planned in Metro Manila.

“It’s funny because we’re in a health crisis right now,” Mayuga said. “Now, suddenly, there is a chance to shake up the system for more sustainable ways to live. It’s a good time to take advantage.”