Monday, January 28, 2008 2-stroke motorcycle's inventory sought By Rimaliza Opiña
MOTORCYCLES may be a growing alternative mode of transportation, but like other vehicles, these also contribute to air pollution.
But comparing the two-stroke from the four-stroke engines, the former emits black smoke -- a leading source of pollutants, as per the monitoring of air samples done by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).
Because of the influx of motorcycles in the city, Baguio City Councilor Rocky Thomas Balisong has pushed for an inventory of motorcycles and possibly restrains the use of two-stroke engines.
Balisong said the plan is also to sustain Baguio's award as once the country's cleanest and greenest highly urbanized city.
Last year, the EMB installed an air monitoring machine, capable of measuring even the tiniest particles emitted by motor vehicles.
Several years earlier, a World Bank monitoring committee revealed Baguio, along with the cities of Davao, Cebu and Manila as among the most air polluted cities in the world.
The EMB-Cordillera negated the report saying only the central business district is polluted.
The manner by which the EMB did its ambient air quality monitoring was also questioned by the same agency, claiming that the air quality machine used was located too near the exhaust pipes of vehicles, thereby affecting the results of air quality.
As part of the intervention measures of the local government's intervention program, then mayor Bernardo Vergara ordered Session Road to be used for one-way traffic only.
The program did not prosper because this resulted in traffic jams in surrounding streets of the city's main thoroughfare.
The private sector meantime launched a program, which promotes the use of bio-diesel to lessen air pollution levels.
Three years after the program was launched, the president of the public transport sector here admitted in a previous interview that only a small percentage of drivers have been using alternative fuel.
