Some wishes for 2015 for road safety as we ride

Wheels of Happiness

Rizal Philippines  |  January 10, 2015

             Less pollution, more safety on the road please



There are several wishes we have for 2015 as we start to ride:

1.  Less pollution on the road -    Tricycles and jeep please have your engine tuned up and please do not rev your engine as we trail you or meet us.   A burst of dark gases from your exhaust can damage our open lungs as we exert to sprint or climb hills;

2.  Please remove (disallow)aftermarket  exhaust pipes from MC that blows direct into our face.   When you follow an MC, the exhaust pipe vents into the face of the one following

Safe Riding from Everyone

Have bike, we will help save the earth...

Marcos Highway looks like a dangerous place to bike.  Motorbikes are more numerous here and travel faster. Right in front of the place where we had breakfast somebody rode at more than say 100 km and willied.  He could have had a head on collision with an incoming jeepney.  He avoided just in time.  And some 300  meters away, a motorbike rammed into a stationary jeepney.

We had always wished that our faster kin take safe driving seriously.  A weekend should be a time for a pleasant ride.  Not for an accident or tragedy.

But we see them:  riding very fast, overtaking from the wrong side or too close, not wearing helmets, eating our lanes. etc. Unsafe....


                       This is the Motorbike that Rammed the Jeep; Look at the Wires that Hold the Fender

                       There is a Big Tarp that Preaches Safety from MDPPA, but who cares and listens?

I do not know who will spread the gospel of safety among our brods who ride motor bikes?  Those who died early?

Threats to Safe Riding for Recyclists_20l0

Though how much you try to ride safely there are hundred and one threat to life and limb of Recyclist_20l0 riders.  I will mention some of them:

l.  Broken glasses.   There must be hundreds of sacks of these sparkling gems on the sides of the street.  The quantity increases daily and no one removes/clean them (none from DPWH or local maintenance minds?)

2.  Smoke belching jeepneys and tricycles.  Jeepneys and tricycles spew out tons of them daily.  As you accelerate, and they accelerate, you inhale their smoke and your poor lungs absorb all of them.  I think inhaling this smoke is as bad as cigarette smoking.  Dont you notice how after a bike ride, there is black residue in your nose and near the eyes.  I wonder what happened to the vaunted Clean Air Act.?  A lot of hot air, and lack of the will to implement?

3. Unsafe/untrained drivers.  This is especially true for those who ride motorized bikes.  Maybe more training for safe driving is in order.  They overtake or meet you at supersonic speeds from the right, or eat into your lane, barely missing you by inches, or taking the corner/curve at speeds they may not possibly safely negotiate.  Unfortunately for them, they meet a lot of accidents. Many who like to ride at high speeds (especially those with big bikes think the highway (which other road bikers use too) is a private race track.  Think again.

4.  Unsafe roads.  There are rebars protuding at the roadside (didnt a famous singer die when he fell and was skewered by such an offending rebars), gratings that are traps to the narrow tires of road bikes. Deep ruts, unnsealed road joints.  Hellow DPWH road maintenance, where are you spent?

5.  Uneducated/bad attitude drivers.  Many public transportation drivers should not only be tested for NP fitness, but also for criminal minds.  Maybe some of them should not be driving at all but deserve to be locked up in jail.  Some are maniacal in road demeanor, are uncouth, are ill mannered (look at their 3 ft lead pipes purportedly to be used for leverage) and are willing to exchange your life for a measly P8 fare.??

Well we try to avoid them and just ride safely. Prudence is the better part of valor