Sunday, August 12, 2007 Sun.star Essay: Cycling safely By Erma M. Cuizon Sun.star essay
THE grandparents used to tell stories about the ciudad before World War II and what’s unforgettable for me are the stories about a great grand uncle’s bicycle shop. As described, there was such a store downtown, like any store now, but it was a store full of the bicycles with two wheels in tandem propelled by pedals, not motorized.
So there must have been a time when people used bikes to go to office (if not walked to it) like we use cars or scooters and motorcycles now.
And surely, they used bikes to climb mountains, perhaps as a way of life.
These days, biking is, among others, a mountain sports. Fans watch from the side to follow the winnings of bike champs, like a champ from Danao city, Niño Surban. In the Asian championship games last year, he ranked 8th among Asian nations, but first among Southeast Asian countries.
This month, Surban will compete in the 13th Asian Mountainbike Championship in China. He could also be given a slot by Philcycling in the SEA Games this December in Thailand.
But other types of bikes preoccupy bikers, especially motorized bikes. There are about 140 motorcycle clubs registered in Motorcycle Philippines. There are motorcycle and scooter jamborees. Two years ago, one was held in Bicol where about 3,000 riders took part. Sixty leaders of motorcycle and scooter clubs attended the pre-jamboree meeting on the rules and safety tips.
In Thailand, such as in cities like Bangkok and Chiangmai, women drive motorcycles to work and back, or to other places.
There was a woman I saw in the early evening traffic driving a scooter wearing heels, apparently on her way to a party.
In China, there’s a place where only less than 3 percent of the citizens own cars. The rest of the people in town ride bicycles, unless they can afford motorcycles or scooters. Owning a car would be a dream.
In the Philippines, the ordinary motorcycle is answer to a prayer, or a scare if used by vigilantes or robbers. Normally in the basement parking, you see motorcycle owners drive out at the end of the day, while the women wait for their husbands to come by for them, still on motorcycles.
There’s no building anywhere else in the city without a space for motorcycles to park. We don’t have formal parking spaces for motorcycles, like they have in Europe---with free chains to go with it to lock up the bike---but we do accept the motorcycle’s role in our daily life.
The first thing that comes to mind, while considering the role of motorcycles in our life, is the mind frame of the car driver who makes comments about cyclists who weave their way “dangerously” in and out of the traffic to the front of the traffic line. From behind, a motor appears in a flash, then sweeps past. And the startled car driver spits shit.
Cyclists say these are misconceptions, that one gets risky on a motorcycling drive. The hundreds of law-abiding drivers you see every day go unnoticed.
But the government must do more to manage cyclists in the streets, especially with the problem now inherent in motorcycling---with vigilantes here and there, and robbers who speed off with the loot.
What’s interesting in motorcycle jamborees is what’s probably lacking in our system of registering motorcycles and cyclists. Before each such biking gig, jamboree leaders talk of safety in the drive, including a guide on hand signals used in the competition. Any one participating can’t help but know more about safe driving.
The first rule is know what clothes to wear, especially for night driving. The rule is elementary, to begin with, say practical and careful sportsmen. Besides driving the right motorcycle size, wearing the right size of helmet, etc., choose the right color for clothes, the way there should be a reflector in the bike.
Be safe, be seen. Only vigilantes drive in the dark.
