MMDA to start apprehending e-bikes on April 15

In late February, the Metro Manila Council (MMC), through the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) passed Regulation No. 24-022 series of 2024. The new regulation prohibits light electric vehicles such as e-bikes, e-trikes, e-four wheelers, as well as tricycles, pedicabs, pushcarts, and kuligligs on national roads, circumferential, and radial roads within Metro Manila.

Today, the MMDA announced that Regulation No. 24-022 series of 2024 will be implemented starting April 15, 2024.

In a press conference after a stakeholder’s consultation meeting on the formulation of implementing rules and regulations for the said prohibition, MMDA Acting Chairman Atty. Don Artes cited laws and issuances relevant to the regulation, adding that the prohibition was not new.

He said that the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has issued two memorandum circulars, particularly the DILG Memorandum Circular Nos. 2020-036 and 2023-195 or Prohibition on Tricycles, Pedicabs, and Motorized Pedicabs on National Highways, as well as the Land Transportation Office (LTO) Administrative Order No. 2021-039 or the Consolidated Guidelines in the Classification, Registration and Operation of All Types of Electric Vehicle – all of which were incorporated in the MMDA regulation.

“We will just enforce this prohibition because of the increasing number of accidents involving e-bikes, e-trikes, and e-scooters. We will not wait for these figures to go higher and the situation to worsen,” said Artes.

Data from the MMDA Road Safety Unit has registered 907 total e-bike, e-trike, and e-scooter-related road crash statistics in Metro Manila for last year, nearly tripling from the 309 accidents listed back in 2019.

Artes said the target date for the release of the IRR is one to two weeks before the April 15 implementation and will take into consideration the position papers to be submitted by the stakeholders.

“We will incorporate in the IRR all the suggestions to address all the concerns and issues that have arisen and will conduct an information drive and campaign before the enforcement of the regulation,” he added.

Artes further said that the stakeholders understood that the regulation doesn’t mean a total ban on their electric light vehicles but rather a safety measure. Artes said that there’s a big chance of fatality if the e-bike, e-trike, and e-scooter users traverse roads with vehicles driving at 60 to 80 kilometers per hour, since their vehicles are open and wearing a helmet is not required.

Moving forward and while awaiting the LTO’s updated guidelines on electric vehicles, Artes mulls the possibility of including the safety of operating e-vehicles in the agency’s Motorcycle Riding Academy curriculum to further push for inclusive road safety.