Lawmaker lauds approval for motorcycle lane proposal in Commonwealth Ave.

MANILA: 1-Rider Partylist Representative Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez commended the approval of the proposal to have a dedicated motorcycle lane along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City to prevent motorcycle-related accidents.

Gutierrez expressed his gratitude to the Metro Manila Council (MMC) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for the initiative that guarantees road safety.

The outermost lane of Commonwealth Avenue will be dedicated to bicycle riders, the next lane will be for public utility vehicles, and the third lane will be for motorcycle riders.

“We laud and thank the MMC, composed of mayors in the National Capital Region, for agreeing with MMDA that there's a need to create exclusive lanes for riders and other motorists to prevent road accidents,” Gutierrez stated.

According to the Road Crash Statistics from the MMDA Traffic Engineering Center, a total of 1,010 motorcycle-related accidents happened along Commonwealth Avenue from January to August 2022, nine of which were fatal, 557 were non-fatal, and 444 caused damage to properties.

The testing phase of the scheme will be implemented along Commonwealth Avenue. It is likely to be replicated if it will reduce the number of motorcycle-related accidents and ease traffic congestion.

“Ang mangyayari dito sa Commonwealth, i-implement natin, testing phase, pag-aaralan kung ito ay talagang helpful sa traffic. Kung talagang mababa ang accident rate at kapag ito ay nangyari at ito ay na-achieve, baka i-replicate sa ibang roads (What will happen in Commonwealth is that we will implement this on a testing phase, and we will study if this will really be helpful in controlling traffic. If the accident rate will lower down, we might replicate this on other roads),” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez also noted that this newly proposed motorcycle lane is different from the previous motorcycle lane project of MMDA.

“Iyong dating implementation nito ay hindi exclusive. Ito ang promise ng MMDA sa ating mga riders: Kung dati ang mga motorcycle riders, inilalagay lang sa isang lane, tapos ang mga kotse, pwede rin gamitin ang lane, iba na ngayon, exclusive na (The previous implementation was not exclusive. This is what MMDA promised to the riders: If before, motorcycle riders had one lane wherein cars could also use the same lane, this time, it is now exclusive),” Gutierrez stated.

Photo from Philippine News Agency

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