Editorial: Regulate electric vehicles

These are newer, cleaner and more comfortable.

However, many electric vehicles plying the roads are not registered with public authorities and pose risks for their passengers and other motorists.

Also known as e-bikes and e-tricycles, these electric vehicles charge P15-20 per passenger for every trip.

In Lapu-Lapu City, these e-vehicles compete with tricycles for short trips outside of villages and subdivisions to the local market, drugstore and V-hire terminals for Cebu City-bound passengers.

Many e-vehicle drivers are contracted to regularly fetch students and workers going to and fro schools, workplaces and transit points.

Some homeowners’ associations (HOAs) register or organize the e-vehicle drivers that are authorized to bring in or out commuters within the subdivision.

This attempt at regulation is undertaken by private citizens to minimize accidents, theft and other undesirable outcomes.

A homeowner and HOA officer in a gated community in Barangay Bankal, Lapu-Lapu City said that regulating e-vehicles used by their commuting residents anticipates complaints that may arise between the passenger and rider.

Road safety is top on the list, with communities having conflicting views on the existence of electric vehicles on roads and even highways.

The e-vehicles perform a needed service to commuters, limiting exposure to extreme weather conditions and assisting them transport their load.

Since these vehicles run on a motor charged electrically, these are viewed as “green” transport, minimizing harm to the environment and enabling owners to save on expensive fuel.

Yet, based on several altercations between e-trike drivers and other motorists at traffic choke points, such as wet markets, arcades and V-hire terminals, many drivers of electric vehicles are seemingly uninformed, untrained, or openly apathetic to traffic laws on safety, unimpeded access, road courtesy and other basics.

The relatively affordable and easy-to-operate e-bikes and e-trikes make these popular among families, with minors and the elderly often seen driving these units within the village.

Unfortunately, these underaged or elderly drivers of e-vehicles often disregard safety and put themselves and others at risk by not minimizing speed, pausing or slowing down at corners and exiting the village for a “short” trip to a corner coffee shop or the wet market outside the village.

Last March 2024, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) announced it will be releasing in the following month the guidelines requiring the registration of electric vehicles and mandating penalties for violation of the new rules.

The LTO issued Administrative Order (AO) 2021-039, also known as the “Consolidated Guidelines in the Classification, Registration, and Operation of All Types of Electric Motor Vehicles.”

In existence since 2021, the administrative order’s implementation is far from ideal, based on the proliferation of e-bikes and e-trikes operating openly in Lapu-Lapu barangays without LTO registration.

The public’s apprehensions extend to whether the drivers of these e-bikes and e-trikes have even a valid driver’s license.

If helmets are spotted as being used by e-vehicle drivers and passengers, the sight surely will arouse comment for its oddity or novelty. Yet, a protective helmet has been documented as minimizing the injuries and even saving lives of people involved in motorcycle or bicycle accidents.

Why are e-vehicle drivers and passengers seemingly exempted from following Republic Act 10054, also known as the Helmet Law?

Barangay officials are key to regulating the operations of electric vehicles in their areas.

Working with the LTO and even HOAs, barangay councils ensure that the popular, seemingly inevitable operations of electric vehicles for hire and for private use serve the public without jeopardizing public safety, free flow of traffic and the ecology.