- CTTMO proposes to clear city roads of e-trikes
THE CITY Transport and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) asked lawmakers to pass legislation that will prohibit electric bikes with sidecars, also known as “e-trikes,” on national roads and highways.
Chona Advincula, CTTMO Motorized Vehicle Franchising and Regulatory Division (MVFRD) head, sent a letter addressed to the 20th City Council, through Vice Mayor J. Melchor Quitain on Feb. 28.
The letter laid out the grounds for the recommendation of CTTMO for the total ban of the units.
Advincula stated the operation of e-trikes is illegal as there are no existing laws and ordinances that warrant the registration and/or licensing of these units.
She further said that e-trikes pose a danger to passengers and other motorists since the units can reach a speed of 30 km/hr and feature unsafe structural modification (sidecar installation) and open side cabs, accommodating up to three persons including the driver.
E-trikes are also found to have “a striking similarity” to payong-payong tricycles, which the city already banned from highways and national roads.
“Per monitoring and ocular investigation, these e-trikes, exponentially growing in number, operate on areas which already have existing modes of public transportation,” Advincula said.
“To aggravate, they also traverse national roads, which clearly violates the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued Memorandum Circular No. 2023-195,” she added.
The memorandum, issued on Dec. 6, 2023, intensifies the prohibition of all tricycles, pedicabs, and motorized pedicabs on national highways. DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos also advised the local government units to enforce strictly the regulations for such.
“LGUs should, therefore, enforce the law dahil kaligtasan ng publiko ang nakasalalay dito. It is unfortunate that many LGUs have not been strictly implementing such,” Abalos said in reports from DILG news.
Advincula also stated it is not necessary to adopt another mode of public transport, especially since the Davao Public Transport Modernization Plan is underway.
“Current modes of public transportation for barangay/inner roads are sufficient to cater to the needs of the riding public,” Advincula said.
The franchising and regulatory chief further said allowing the “unnecessary and unsafe” operation of these units is “counter-productive” to the city’s ways forward to improve its system of transportation.
Two months after 2024, CTTMO has apprehended 30 e-trikes, the same number in 2022. Last year, 189 e-trikes were nabbed.
The letter was forwarded to the floor leader Atty. Jesus Joseph P. Zozobrado III and referred to the Committee on Transportation and Communications for appropriate action.
