Over 440 tricycle drivers operating along Katipunan Avenue could lose access to their main routes after the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) ordered a ban on tricycles and e-vehicles along national roads.
The ban will take effect on April 15, following the Metro Manila Council (MMC)’s approval of MMDA Regulation No. 24-022 S. 2024 passed on February 28. The measure prohibits the use of e-vehicles and tricycles along all Metro Manila national, circumferential, and radial roads, with violators facing fines of up to P2,500.
The move to ban came after reports of multiple e-vehicle motorists violating traffic laws surfaced on social media, even if the government’s own numbers say otherwise.
Uncertainty
The ban was also extended to tricycles, with the MMDA reasoning that tricycles were already banned in the first place from previous resolutions.
There was an initial tricycle ban in 2018, but the Quezon City government asked the MMDA for an indefinite exemption for Katipunan tricycles. No such exemption has been granted yet for the most recent ban, and it remains to be seen if the previous exemption will hold.
“Yung local kasi tsaka yung national [government], minsan nagkakaroon ng [ibang] interpretation. Dapat magkaroon ang [MMDA] ng maayos na usapan ng local. Bakit kailangang merong pagkakaiba ng implementation?” Bong Batalier, president of the Loyola Heights Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association (TODA), told the Collegian.
Two routes currently operate in Katipunan–the white Loyola Heights tricycles, operating mainly near the end of Katipunan Avenue, and the green Loyola-Pansol tricycles, which operate nearer to UP. Both groups of tricycles must traverse Katipunan as there are no other alternative routes.
At least one incident of a tricycle being flagged by the MMDA along Katipunan has occurred since the regulation’s passage, Quezon City TODA Federation President Alex Baay told the Collegian.
The MMDA did let the tricycle drivers operate temporarily after they presented the exemption granted by the Quezon City government, but they are unsure whether this arrangement will be permanent. Quezon City TODA is set to meet with the MMDA regarding the issue this week.
“Anong mangyayari [kung hindi kami papasadahin]? Edi syempre, papalag kami dahil may hawak kaming exemption na galing din sa ahensya ng gobyerno. Yung permit to operate natin, nandyan, tapos ang maglilimita, national?” Batalier said.
Misplaced ban?
Individual e-vehicle users are also set to bear the brunt of the upcoming ban. For the MMDA, its regulation was crafted to protect e-vehicle users and other motorists from road crashes, as e-vehicles were involved in 554 road crashes last year.
This pales in comparison, however, to the 44,493 road crash incidents just from January to July 2023. Moreover, tricycle crashes accounted for only 1.62 percent of the 71,890 vehicular incidents in 2022 (see sidebar).
The ban runs contrary to recent efforts by the Quezon City government to decongest Katipunan Avenue. Ira Cruz, director of transportation advocacy group AltMobility, slammed the MMC’s decision to ban e-vehicles as a step backward in solving Metro Manila’s traffic problem.
”It’s a clear reflection of the government’s inability to adapt to new forms of transportation. The knee-jerk reaction is to ban. And while they use the words ‘regulate,’ what we’re really seeing is that this is a restriction of movement more than anything,“ Cruz told the Collegian.
Cruz added that the ban came as a surprise and that no advocacy groups were consulted, even though the MMDA has consulted mobility groups before for other issues such as road-sharing in EDSA.
While Cruz said that transport advocacy groups plan to fight the resolution by raising it in subsequent hearings and by contacting members of Congress, they can only hope that the government listens and reverses the ban.
The MMDA has asserted that it does not want to ban the use of e-vehicles completely, instead leaving the fate of e-vehicles and tricycles to the individual Metro Manila governments.
”Nananawagan kami sa lahat ng Metro Manila mayors pati na ang MMC, kasama na ang pamunuan ng MMDA, na magkaroon ng pagkakataon na pakinggan naman ang panig ng civil society organizations at mga stakeholders bago ipatupad ang resolution na ito. At the end of the day, pare-pareho lang naman tayo ng gustong mangyari—mobility at road safety,” Cruz said. ●
First published in the March 15, 2024 print edition of the Collegian.
