A party-list lawmaker on Friday lauded the approval of a proposal to establish a dedicated motorcycle lane along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City to prevent motorcycle-related accidents.

In a statement, 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez thanked the Metro Manila Council (MMC) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), particularly its acting chairman Carlo Dimayuga III, for the initiative that aims to ensure the safety of road users.

The MMC “agreed in principle” to have an exclusive lane for motorcycles, as well as lanes for bicycles and public utility vehicles (PUVs).

The outermost lane of Commonwealth Avenue will be for bicycle riders, the next lane will be for PUVs, and the third lane for motorcycle riders.

“We laud and thank the MMC, composed of mayors in the National Capital Region, for agreeing with MMDA that there’s a need to create exclusive lanes for riders and other motorists to prevent road accidents,” Gutierrez said.

He emphasized the importance of having exclusive lanes for riders because they are among the most exposed and at-risk sectors on the road, citing Road Crash Statistics from the MMDA Traffic Engineering Center showing that a total of 1,010 motorcycle-related accidents occurred along Commonwealth Avenue from January to August 2022.

The data also showed that nine out of the 1,010 cases were fatal, while 557 were non-fatal and 444 caused damage to properties.

The exclusive lanes were among those discussed during the MMDA’s motorcycle consultation workshop from October 12 to 13, Gutierrez noted.

He said the testing phase of the scheme would be implemented along Commonwealth Avenue, and the possibility of replicating it is likely if it could reduce the accident rate, as well as traffic congestion.

“Ang mangyayari dito sa Commonwealth, i-implement natin, testing phase, pag-aaralan kung ito ay talagang helpful sa traffic. Kung talagang mababa ang accident rate at kapag ito ay nangyari at ito ay na-achieve, baka i-replicate sa ibang roads (What will happen in Commonwealth is that we will implement this on a testing phase, and we will study if this scheme is really helpful to control traffic and if it could reduce the accident rate. If these are achieved, we might replicate it for other roads),” he said.

Gutierrez clarified that this newly proposed dedicated lane for motorcycles is different from the previous motorcycle lane project of MMDA.

“Iyong dating implementation nito ay hindi exclusive. Ito ang promise ng MMDA sa ating mga riders: Kung dati ang mga motorcycle riders, inilalagay lang sa isang lane, tapos ang mga kotse, pwede rin gamitin ang lane, iba na ngayon, exclusive na (The previous implementation was not exclusive. This is the promise of MMDA to the riders: before, motorcycle riders had one lane wherein cars could also use the same lane. This time around, it’s different; it’s now exclusive),” he said. (PNA)