Tricycles and Pedicabs to be Banned?

A clutch of lawmakers thumbed down the proposed banning of tricycles and pedicabs along national roads, saying that such measure will displace thousands of tricycle and pedicabs drivers who rely solely on plying the streets for income.

Reps. Antonio Tinio of ACT Party-list and Gabriel Quisumbing of Cebu made the statement in light of the call made by Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo that local chief executives and members of the local legislative councils should ban tricycles and pedicabs on national roads.

Quisumbing noted that the government cannot discount the important role of the tricycle in transportation in many parts of the country especially those in far flung barangays.

Tinio agreed, citing that the can traverse highways, city streets, inner roads, alleys, dirt paths, and even places where there are no identifiable pathways.

“We cannot just ban this means of transportation in whole of the country since millions of people are getting their daily sustenance from it,” Tinio said.

Combined pedestrian and vehicular accidents account for 30 percent of injuries in previously healthy children, while tricycle passenger injury ranks fourth in causing motor vehicle injuries.

By LLANESCA T. PANTI