Lets Get Out and Bike

When I joined the recently concluded 4th National Bicycle Day on November 26, 2017, I met someone who uses a bicycle to work. Meeting someone who "bike commutes" is definitely great news for our country and the environment.  During our talk, while waiting the "ride out" of  this event organized by the National Bicycle Organization of the Philippines, he told me about the benefits and the dangers of commuting to work by bike. It is again the lack of bicycle lanes that is cited as the main reason why commuting to work on a bicycle has not been appealable to a lot of people.

We all know the benefits of biking to ourselves, to our country and to the environment. However encouraging the use of bicycles seems not on the priority list of our authorities. The various plans that would encourage the use of bicycles such as the putting up of integrated or connected bicycle lanes are yet to be implemented. These plans, hopefully, are not totally abandoned. If the use of bicycles are supported and encouraged, I think we can have that "realistic solution" to the traffic mess we are all in right now.

During the said event, I first experienced how it is to ride around Metro Manila at night.  Ride out from the Kilometer Zero in Rizal Park started almost two hours after midnight and the ride practically covered the whole of Metro Manila. Bikers were assisted by Marshalls and accompanied by traffic police personnel and an ambulance. It was tough but the experience was worth it. A raffle of bicycles and other cycling gears concluded the event at the venue where it all started.