Please lift the motorcycle ban on Session Road
- by Joel R. Dizon
(BAGUIO CITY, Philippines) - By city ordinance, motorcycles are not allowed to pass through Session Road, Magsaysay Avenue and Harrison Road. I'm not exactly sure what the justification is. Motorcyces do not cause traffic. On the contrary, they reduce traffic because they enable people to move around on a two-wheeled vehicle that occupies less than three square feet of road space.
Motorcycles certainly do not pose a menace to pedestrians. If a motorcyclist collides with a pedestrian, the greater injury would likely be sustaned by the motorcyclist, since he would likely be thrown off the motorcycle. Between him and the pedestrian, the motorcyclist is the one who would undergo the greater deceleration in speed and therefore be the one to hit the pavement with greater impact. That's why bikers must hear helmets, pedestrians don't have to.
The fact that it is not in the best interest of the motorcyclist to collide with anyone is the best guarantee that he would be a more responsible road user.
A drunk person could still drive a car a considerable distance, posing a danger to everyone on the road. In contrast, anyone who is drunk and stupid enough to try to operate a motorcycle would crash literally within seconds, he would not likely be able to stay upright long enough to hurt anyone else.
Motorcycles have a smaller carbon footprint. No doubt about it. True, there was a time when motorcycles were notorious for their polluting emissions. Those were the days of the two-stroke engines, which were lubricated by a mixing T2 engine oil directly with the fuel. The moving parts of the motorcycle engine were lubed by the fuel and oil mixture, which were then burned together in the combustion chamber--giving off that telltale whitish smoke.
But all modern motorcycles are now patterned after the four-stroke concept. The most significant feature of this new technology is that the engine lubrication is now independent of the fuel system. High-grade high-viscousity synthetic engine oil is now circulated through the stroker block using a lubrication jacket that is ouside the combustion chamber. Only the fuel is now burned in the cylinder, this results in more complete combustion and dramatically reduced emission levels.
But this is the clincher. Under this city ordinance, motorcycles operated by telegram companies, utilities and businesses that use motorcycles for home delivery are exempted. Where is the logic in that? What nuisance does a goose cause that a gander doesn't?
The motorcycle ban is obviously aimed to please people who simply don't like motorcycles. But they are forgetting that there are people aboard those motorcycles.
In other words, dislike for motorcycles is actually intolerance for the people who ride them. To my mind, that is unjustifiable prejudice, plain and simple.
In this day and age, we should never have any more laws based on hatred and prejudice.
Please repeal this ordinance and lift the ban on motorcycles in the city's main thoroughfare.
It's a small enough planet. We should learn to SHARE.