Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 25) — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Friday has discussed about reimplementing the EDSA motorcycle lane as the volume of motorcycles out on the major thoroughfare significantly increased.
In a Laging Handa briefing, MMDA Director Neomie Recio cited that more Filipinos have opted to buy motorcycles amid the pandemic, especially when public transportation was temporarily suspended due to the imposed lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The motorcycle volume now rose to 48%, according to Recio.
“Actually, tumaas ‘yan ng 48% compared nung pre-pandemic, kasi maraming bumili ng motor nung walang public transport, walang masakyan, natatakot mahawa,” the MMDA Director said.
[Translation: Actually, that increased to 48% compared to lower pre-pandemic level, because many people bought motorcycles when public transport was unavailable, there was virtually no mode of transportation, and there’s fear of getting infected.]
When the volume of vehicles decreased on major roads in the middle of the pandemic’s surge, Recio said the MMDA decidedly refrained from apprehending violators in consideration of the light volume of vehicles in EDSA.
However, the significant increase in the volume of motorcycles now is prompting the MMDA to discuss whether they should reimplement guidelines on motorcycle lanes.
“Pinaguusapan ngayon kung ibabalik na ba ‘yung motorcycle lane na panghuhuli namin, kasi noong nag-pandemic, medyo nag-lay low kami kasi syempre, kokonti naman yung mga sasakyan noon, di ba nag-lockdown tayo. So, hindi kami nanghuli ng mga nagv-violate na motorcycle.”
[Translation: We’re now talking about whether to bring back the motorcycle lane guidelines since, when the pandemic hit, we laid low because, of course, there were fewer vehicles then. We were on lockdown, right., so we were not apprehending motorcycle-riding violators.]
The motorcycle lane along EDSA was previously situated on the second lane from the left. However, motorcycles are now free to weave in the remaining lanes after the leftmost one was turned into EDSA Busway in 2020.
