ILOILO City – The first Friday Bike Count here on June 3 was able to gather 6,493 bikers in 10 strategic locations.
The Friday Bike Count was timed with the celebration of World Bicycle Day and launching of the annual Iloilo Bike Festival. It aims to boost Iloilo City’s growing reputation as a bike-friendly city and Bike Capital of the Philippines.
If all those bikers travelled by car, an addition of 2,165 vehicles would have filled the road, enough to cover the entire eight lanes of the Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue in bumper-to-bumper traffic from SM City Iloilo to General Luna Street stoplight, an analysis of Jaypee Agregado and RB Jann Jamindang of the University of the Philippines Visayas showed, as reported by the Iloilo Bike Ed for Road Safety Facebook page which was part of the bike count activity.
Agregado and Jamindang were Applied Mathematics students who recently completed the study, “Two-Tired to Travel: The Implementation of Graph Theory in Creating an Efficient Bike Lane System Across Iloilo City Proper.”
The second Friday Bike Count was held on June 10. The organizers were yet to release the bike count.
The Friday Bike Count, to be done on four Fridays of June, is organized in collaboration with the city government, Iloilo Folding Bike Riders (iFOLD), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region 6, and Mobility Awards.
Teams composed of personnel of the Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO), DPWH-6, and volunteers will be stationed in 20 strategic locations, during peak hours (6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.), to gather data about bike users in the city.
Organizers said the information will be used to help craft more inclusive and responsive policies that will further encourage active mobility, road sharing and safety.
Consistent data generated will be utilized in transport planning and monitoring of road infrastructure, and other potential opportunities that the city can optimize.
City Hall has been working with concerned offices, advocates and biking community in promoting bike culture and lifestyle.
The metropolis was awarded back-to-back Gold in Mobility Awards given by non-government organizations and Bike Lane Awards last year./PN
