Monday, June 27, 2011

Bikeshare in the Philippines

The username of this blog is bikeshare.  You might be wondering why?

Elsewhere in the world, in Europe and USA, large companies and wealthy individuals are promoting bikeshare.

Bikes are encouraged as means of commuting. A communter subscribes to a service, and he can, using his subsc ription card to get a bike from a station, ride it to the next point, locks the bike to an automatic self service locking mechanism for the next biker to use.  There are numerous nodes in the city where commuters can pick up bikes, lock them up and so on.  A nice way to conserve energy,lessen global warming and pollution.

The system  is called BIKESHARE...

Maybe someday, somebody would have the sense to have the same system installed here - it is a form of social entrepreneurship to save the planet.

But for many poor workers, especially construction and factory workers, many are shifting to (mountain why, because they are cheap and affordable) bike commuting.  Using a bike to go to work returns the investment for the bike in 6 months at most (200% ROE a good investment!).  But sadly, these bikers are subject to pollution and unsafe riding conditions because of:   poor enforcement of the helmet rule, lack of safety on the part of bike riders themselves, lack of safety training by motorbike riders, inconsiderate and reckless fx and jeepney drivers, lack of facilities and safe roads for bikers.

There are firefly rides to drum up support and we hope the maturity of people and their support for biking shall continue to improve and grow stronger,,

BIKESHARE

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