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Pasig plans to offer free monthly bike lessons for those who want to learn how to ride a bike!
In partnership with Bicycle Friendly Philippines, Pasig Transport, the city government's transport development and management division, gave free bike lessons to more than 40 Filipinos on Emerald Avenue Saturday.
"A big motivator to get it going quickly was the fast increase in fuel prices due to global crises," Rob Siy of Pasig Transport told GMA News Online in an email interview.
"But more than that, we've always thought that teaching more people how to ride a bike is a critical part of building the constituency for sustainable transportation," he added.
According to Siy, they wanted to address the main barrier to cycling for a lot of people: Not knowing how to ride a bike.
During the two-hour bike lesson last Saturday, students were taught "how to balance, pedal, and control a bike, as well as basic hand signals."
There were more than 40 people who showed up. "Some were kids brought by parents who weren't sure how to teach them. Some people were interested in exercising, others were interested in learning so that they could learn to commute by bicycle. People young and old came for all sorts of reasons. It just goes to show how cycling can be good for so many things," Siy said.
Last Saturday, 20-something Oliver Emocling was among those who participated. "I heard about it on social media and wanted to learn so I could bike short distances like from the house to the market," he said, adding the "instructors were really nice."
Because of the "greater than expected" turn out, Pasig Transport plans to continue with the initiative. "We’re trying to see about doing it at least once a month, maybe more," Siy said. "But we rely on volunteers for this, so right now, it's about finding time for people and perhaps resources that will make the volunteers' mornings worth it. But we definitely want to do more of this in the future."
Pasig Transport has long put forward alternative transport and human-grade infrastructure. Pre-pandemic, it already turned Emerald Avenue carless on Sundays, closing the street to car traffic to allow residents to enjoy their neighborhood.
Pasig had also initiated a bike-sharing program in the city, and during the pandemic, it repurposed the bike units to lend to their medical frontliners.
When bicycle use soared during lockdown, it quickly put up protected bike lanes on its streets and in 2021, Pasig Transport introduced the bike box at a Kapitolyo intersection for safer streets.
Apart from bike lessons, Pasig Transport is also looking to "open" more streets like Emerald Avenue on Sundays. "We're also planning more protected cycling and pedestrian infrastructure and working with the Department of Transportation to expand protected bike lanes on national roads and help build the Metro Manila protected bicycle network," Siy said. — LA, GMA News
