Bicycles or bikes are now becoming a more popular form of transportation during the quarantine period in Cebu City.| CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Bike lanes in Cebu City are currently underway as the Cebu City Planning Office has already identified the roads where the bike lanes will be placed.
Architect Anne Marie Cuizon, the assistant head of the City Planning and one of the designers of the city’s bike lanes, said that the establishment of the long-awaited lanes took time because they had to align it to the Integrated Intermodal Transporation System (IITS) of the tri-cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu.
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Cuizon said that what they aimed for the bike lanes were for these to be permanent in the road structures of the city and would work even when the bus rapid transit (BRT) system would be set in place in 2021 or 2022.
A meeting between the tri-Cities was held on July 28, 2020, for the discussion of an integrated bike lane that would begin in Cebu City and end at the Mactan International Airport (MCIA) in Lapu-Lapu City.
With this, Cebu City had to revise its bike lane route design to accommodate the integrated plan. Cuizon said they were finalizing the plans for the bike lanes.
“Despite the pandemic, projects like the Bus Rapid Transport System will still be implemented. We had to create a plan to align with this BRT. It has to be on the long term so that we implement markings on the road, it has to be permanent,” said Cuizon.
For now, the identified areas are the major roads such as N. Bacalso Highway, Osmeña Boulevard, and M.J. Cuenco Avenue, General Maxilom Avenue, and other major streets.
The city has begun painting the roads as well to jumpstart the project and Cuizon hopes that the bike lanes will be finished so that bikers can finally ply the streets safely. /dbs