Monday, November 09, 2009

I want to ride my bicycle

Congratulations go out to the various bike groups that have successfully lobbied for folding bikes to be allowed in LRT trains.

Now getting to work or any other place will be quicker without having to deal much with deadly motor vehicle traffic and even deadlier air pollution. Hooray!

Except for one thing: how many will actually benefit from this allotment of "green zones" in LRT trains?

Stand by any busy Metro Manila sidewalk and count how many folding bikes pass by you in a span of one hour. How many do you see? Yup, that's right: close to none!

Having owned bikes since I was 3 and having lived in Metro Manila my whole life, let me say with confidence that most bikes in my beloved metropolis will fall under only one of these types: BMX, mountain bike and road  bike.

Folding bikes aren't just uncommon in these parts, they're a rarity.

If the purpose of letting bikes on trains is to reap all the benefits of a "hybrid lifestyle", then why is the vast majority of bike owners left out in the cold? Do the LRT and the cycling groups expect everyone to shell out thousands of pesos like Pia Cayetano just so we can buy a new folding bike? What about blue-collared workers who rely on their modified BMX's to get to their jobs at factories or construction sites? No hybrid lifestyle for them, too, huh?

While it's not hard to see why folding bikes get preferential treatment, it won't be easy to understand if this is the end-all be-all of things. Here's something to ponder over, LRT -- if foldables can get in for free, how about I pay half my fare for my non-foldable racer?

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