METRO Manila residents may have already noticed official bike lanes sprouting among one of the capital city’s most used thoroughfares.
Today, Department of Transportation officials made an official inspection of the Edsa bike lanes. Pictures released by the government agency show the northbound stretch of the Pasay section of Edsa, in front of Heritage Hotel; and the southbound section heading to Santolan-Annapolis Station.
Agency officials were shown measuring the width of the bike lanes.
The pictures show the different implementation of bike lanes along the major highway. The first, which can be seen in the Pasay photos, is a fully protected bike lane, segregated from the other lanes with a low concrete barrier and bollards.
Another type, as seen in the southbound photos, is an open lane marked by bright green paint and a white boundary line.
The inspection comes three days after the DOTr announced in a press conference that it had already completed 296 kilometers of a nationwide bike lane network. This is 55 percent of its 535-kilometer target.
Earlier this year, a coalition of mobility groups slammed the government agency for inaction in the issue of bike lanes. Since then, the DOTr has been working in cooperation with some of these groups, as well as move the long-delayed bike lane network forward.
In the same press conference, the agency also announced that it had partnered with SM Cares to release a free bike safety manual for bike commuters.
Since the pandemic began, the importation of bikes more than doubled, according to 2020 data released by the Bureau of Customs.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph