Ateneo opens bike lanes to ease Katipunan traffic

Traffic on Katipunan Avenue. INQUIRER file photo

A bike-sharing program has been initiated near one of the most heavily-clogged roads in Metro Manila. To prevent traffic jams during rush hour and reduce pollution on Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has launched the “Bike-kadahan” project on the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) campus.

On the agency’s Sunday radio program, MMDA General Manager Cora Jimenez said the “share-a-bike” program was aimed at reducing the number of vehicles entering the school grounds and ease traffic on the busy thoroughfare.

“We also want to encourage students and school personnel to exercise and lessen pollution in their surroundings,” Jimenez added.

According to MMDA Traffic Discipline Office head Cris Saruca, more than 5,000 vehicles go inside the AdMU campus in the morning on school days—a number the agency was hoping to trim down.

Saruca said that bike lanes and bike stops had already been designated on the school grounds, with the bike lane starting at the corner of Katipunan Avenue and F. de la Rosa Street near Gate 3.

“The MMDA has placed there around 50 bicycles that students and university personnel can borrow for free,” he added.

Launched in some areas by the MMDA in March, the “Bike-kadahan” program is aimed at promoting biking as an alternative mode of transportation and providing safe parking spaces for the two-wheeled vehicles.

Anyone can borrow bicycles as long as they present a valid identification card in exchange for a card bearing the bike number. The bike-sharing project initially kicked off on the northbound lane of Magallanes to Ayala in Makati followed by the opening of two more bike lanes in Quezon City: Ortigas to Santolan (Edsa northbound) and from White Plains Edsa to Temple Drive.

Jimenez said that the MMDA’s ultimate goal was to have bike lanes connecting all cities in Metro Manila.

“We are continuously studying those plans because we also want to provide safe and unobstructed areas for bikers,” she added.

At the same time, she expressed hope that the bike-sharing scheme would work in Ateneo and be adopted in other universities as well.

In a statement released last Friday, AdMU Campus Safety and Mobility Office director Marcelino Mendoza said that they were coordinating with the MMDA in making sure that “traffic inside Ateneo [would] fit the current traffic scheme [on] Katipunan.”

“We coordinate our traffic scheme inside the campus with MMDA and we get feedback from different unit representatives and parents’ groups. We consult and get feedback from them so that our direction in solving the problem will be much easier and direct to the community,” Mendoza added.

He also noted that the bike-lending program would help in promoting low-carbon mobility inside the campus.

“We are planning to improve the bike tracks inside the university. Another plan is to improve the path and security measures from the Aurora drop-off point since many students and staff take that route,” he said.

Saruca, meanwhile, said that the MMDA had also coordinated with Miriam College officials on easing traffic congestion on Katipunan Avenue.

“They have already placed no loading and no unloading signs near Gate 1 and closed the pedestrian gate so that cars will unload student passengers [only] inside the college campus,” he stated, adding that traffic near Miriam College has greatly improved since the installation of traffic lights on the busy thoroughfare. With report by Maricar B. Brizuela