The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
While only motorcycles with 400 cc and above engine displacement are currently allowed entry into expressways, the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) is currently considering lowering the engine size limit to access major tollways.
During the online Kapihan media forum, Atty. Alvin Carullo, TRB Executive Director, and Joz Carlos Ordillano, TRB Regulation Division chief, admitted studying the possibility of allowing motorcycles with less than 400 cc engines to use expressways.
The TRB said as far back as 2017 they have been studying the request of motorcycle groups to lower the engine size of motorcycles allowed at expressways because recent motorcycle design improvements have made those with less than 400cc engines just as stable and safe.
Ordillano said their studies are focused on the aerodynamics, traction and engine displacement of these latest model motorcycles with less than 400cc engines.
TRB’s coordination with motorcycle manufacturers to determine the new models’ stability and safety was interrupted by the pandemic, according to Ordillano.
The TRB’s chief of Regulation Division also revealed that incidents of motorcycle accidents along tollways had been minimal over the last two years, indicating high level of road safety awareness among motorcyclists.
However, Antonio Bolario, Jr., Motorcycle Division chief of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), countered that traffic enforcers in the metropolis have reported an increasing number of motorcycle drivers not familiar with basic road safety.
“Many new motorcycle riders today do not follow traffic rules – we call them kamote riders – resulting in accidents,” said Bolario.
“Although members of motorcycle associations have shown awareness and respect for traffic rules,” he added.
Another guest of the Online Kapihan organized by Samahang Plaridel, an association of veteran journalists and communicators, Roberto Valera, Land Transportation Office Deputy Director, revealed that more than 60% of all currently registered vehicles in the country are motorcycles.
Available data showed the number of purchased motorcycles increased from 720,000 in 2011 to more than 1.7 million in 2019.
Valera also disclosed that certain electric motorcycles with low maximum speed are only allowed at secondary roads and prohibited at main highways.
Meanwhile, Atty. Carullo revealed that recently TRB is now allowing three-wheeled motorcycles with more than 600cc engines but with no sidecars along TRB-supervised tollways.