City of San Fernando, Pampanga — E-trikes are dangerous and need improvement while the country seeks to reduce carbon emission as provided for under the Paris Agreement of 2015 signed by 194 countries including the Phillipimes.
The e-trikes are selling like hotcakes and mushrooming in Central Luzon as a form of new transportation for people for all walks of life. In this city alone, about 3,000 units of e-bikes are operating. This is the same number in operation in Olongapo City.
The e-trikes value about P30,000 each can accommodate four passengers with space for cargo. They run by battery instead of diesel and do not emit noise pollution and carcinogenic substances that cause lung cancer
Rolly Casilan, regional operation officer of the Land Transportation Office in Central Luzon said although e-trikes are climate friendly, they are dangerous to ride because of their small axle and three tires.
This is also the reason we are not registering them as mode of transportation as provided for by the Republic Act No.4136 that regulate transportation and traffic in the country under LTO dated 1964.
But the people love to ride them because they are much more convenient and better than the noisy emitting pollution tricycles which run on gasoline or diesel Casilan said.
They don’t have also insurance policy either comprehensive or non comprehensive to protect passengers from accidents. There were four reported cases where passengers either ended in the cemetery, hospitals and courts, he said.
However, Casilan said there is now a move to register these e-trikes pending the submission of the vital requirement by the Chinese manufacturer to the LTO. Guidelines have been already issued last year for its eventual registration.
He said that the Chinese manufacturer can improve its e-trike and can maintain its share of the market if it can improve its axle and its tires for the safety of the passengers.
This is seen as our starting contribution to the Paris Agreement of 2015 which keep global temperature below 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degree Celsius.
Under the agreement which was signed by 194 countries including the Philippines in New York last December 12, 2015. It calls for green house gases emission reduction and adaptation to reduce global warming.
The agreement that took its effectively last November 4, 2016, mega cities of the world start banning or limiting the use of cars run by diesel in favor of the highbreed and electric cars.
In an article published by London based newspaper Guardian and supported by Greenpeace entitled the Death of Diesel, it reported that diesel is more dangerous than asbestos and mustard gas that killed 3.3 million people worldwide a year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that diesel which had its heyday in 1990s, exhaust carcinogenic elements that cause lung cancer in the category of asbestos and mustard gas.
In Paris diesel car models, 2000 were banned from entering the city capital while those 2006 and 2010 models were heavily penalized at the toll gate of expressways.
Berlin and Munich will start banning automotives running in diesel by 2018 while Oslo City in Norway will penalize drivers entering the city from 33 Krone(E3) to 58 krone(E5.50 ) during rush hours.
On the other hand, cities like Madrid, Athens, Mexico also agreed to outlaw diesel by 2025.(Romeo Dizon)