68% of road users in Central Visayas motorcycles: LTO 7

FASTER WAY. Taking the motorcycle is more convenient and faster in navigating heavy traffic. / KJF
FASTER WAY. Taking the motorcycle is more convenient and faster in navigating heavy traffic. / KJF

HEAVY traffic, commuter surge, rush hour.

These are some reasons Britney Ann Yu, a 22-year-old researcher from the University of the Philippines Cebu, has switched from taking a four-wheeled vehicle to using a motorcycle when going to work.

Yu said that using a motorcycle is more convenient and it saves her time and money.

Before, when she was still commuting, it took her more than 40 minutes to arrive at her workplace in Lahug from Barangay Sapangdaku. Now, it’s just 20 minutes.

Yu told SunStar Cebu Saturday, April 1, 2023 that she can go to places without worrying about the availability of public vehicles when going home.

Also, from paying 140 pesos for her two-way fare a day, now, she only spends P120 for the gas of her motorcycle that should suffice for four days.

Though aware of the risks a motorcycle ride poses, she said that she has become extra careful when plying the roads especially congested ones.

Yu owns only one of the 1.2 million motorcycle vehicles in Central Visayas, according to the latest estimation by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) 7.

In the available data given by LTO 7, the number of motorcycles in the region has surged in the last decade. (See table)

LTO 7 Director Victor Caindec said that in Region 7 or Central Visayas, more than half of the vehicles that are running on the roads are motorcycles.

LTO 7 records showed that in total, 68 percent of the vehicles in the region are motorcycles, followed by utility vehicles or UV at 18 percent, cars at seven percent, sports utility vehicles or SUVs at four percent and trucks also at four percent.

“As a convenient and as a cheap means of transportation and the persuasiveness of motorcycle dealers in offering installments are some of the reasons we see why more people wanted to get their own motorcycle,” Caindec told SunStar Cebu on Friday, March 31.

Caindec said the traffic in Metro Cebu has contributed much to the increasing number of motorcycles on the road.

“We are not adding roads but vehicles,” he said.

He also said parking a motorcycle is easier parking a four-wheeled vehicle.

Caindec said that his office does not have the data yet for 2021 and 2022, but with the restrictions, he estimates the numbers to be stagnant or increase slightly.

“We are looking at 1.3 to 1.4 motorcycles now in the region, considering the pandemic where most of the businesses were down,” Caindec said.

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