Rodriguez Town's Bicycle Ordinance Nears Reality

Finally! I just got confirmation that the Bicycle Ordinance for Rodriguez that we have submitted has been approved by the plenary session of our town's municipal council last Monday, 18 November 2013. It now simply awaits the confirmatory signature from our municipal mayor before it becomes executory.

Among the provisions of this Ordinance are the creation and maintenance of bike lanes with proper markings, creation of biker facilities especially bike racks on strategic places for safe parking, biker education especially on bike maintenance and road safety, and a cycling body to manage these things.

With this Ordinance, we aim to make the town of Rodriguez more friendly and safer to cyclists. We aim to minimize misunderstandings between cyclists and motorists, and especially to minimize accidents involving cyclists. We also aim to help mitigate climate change, even in this small way.

With the help of Municipal Councilors Roger Frias and Arman Angeles, we have shepherded this Ordinance in the municipal council in the last few months. After some revisions and repeated submissions by us in the last few years, our efforts are finally nearing fruition.

Our members and cycling friends who got involved in near-accidents, and met actual accidents, one even resulting in death, have spurred us to continue pushing for this Ordinance. Aside from principles, it is to their memory that we continue to pursue this Ordinance to fruition, so that none may follow.

We hope this can be our small contribution to our national, and the international, campaigns to make our roads safer to cyclists, and our environment cleaner for us all.