The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Thursday vowed to continue holding dialogues and consultations with stakeholders in a bid to come up with appropriate and lawful guidelines amid mounting concerns on electronic bikes and e-trikes.
LTO chief Vigor Mendoza II said the conduct of more consultative meetings is in line with the instruction of Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista to gather the viewpoints of different groups and stakeholders before the adoption of guidelines on whether or not
e-bikes and e-trikes must be registered, and that their riders must be holders of a driver’s license.
“We share the concerns raised by motorists on the aspect of road safety involving the presence of e-bikes and e-trikes on national roads and even on major thoroughfares,” he said.
“In as much as we want to set the rules for them, there are various factors that must be considered like an existing law that promotes their ownership and use, as well as the programs and projects by local government units using these e-vehicles for their constituents,” he added.
A week ago, the LTO chief spearheaded the conduct of a dialogue with transport groups and organizations that supported e-vehicles.
Some transport groups lamented they would lose income from short trips as e-trikes were being used for public transport, and complained about the blatant traffic rules violations being committed by e-bikes and e-trikes users.
“LTO will release the guidelines with a national scope. That’s why we want to ensure that everything is in order, legal and acceptable to all since our local government units have their own livelihood programs using these e-vehicles,” Mendoza said.