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OH, please.
Spare me the bleeding heart rhetoric. Yes, we are in a Third World
country where more than half of the population live below the
internationally recognized poverty line. Yes, unlike in developed
countries, personal transportation is a luxury here. Yes, even
public transportation is a luxury too, no thanks to our very
efficient, extremely honest, utterly competent government. But there
is no effing way a motorcycle should be used as a family car.
Surely you’ve seen them around. Tatay piloting
the bike, Nanay at the back, two kids in between them. Sometimes,
bunso—the littlest among the litter—sits on top of the tank in
front of Tatay. Helmet wear would almost always be optional too, no
thanks to our very efficient, extremely honest, utterly competent
police force and traffic management personnel who set the example by
refusing to wear helmets when riding their motorcycles.
Five on a bike then, a couple with three
kids—raising questions on population control as well. But I
digress, although not that far.
It’s a sight so commonplace most of us don’t
give it a second thought anymore. Even reputed companies like Petron
Corp. fall into this trap.
In a recent advertisement (although frankly
I’m not sure if it has already pulled it off the air) for its
motorcycle oil, pop personality Ramon Bautista rides around in a
motorcycle and brings along a lady and a kid. To Petron’s credit,
the models all wear half-face helmets. But apparently, the fact that
a motorcycle should not be treated as a family car is lost to Petron—or
at least to those in the company who approved the ad. No thanks to
them and the ad agency guys who wittingly conceptualized the
advertisement, Petron inevitably promoted unsafe road practices that
are surely contrary to its corporate social responsibility efforts.
For the most part, the lack of road safety and
riding education is to blame. Many motorcyclists don’t realize the
dangers inherent and the skills required in carrying a
passenger—much less, passengers. Admittedly, one would be hard
pressed to find educational material that deals with taking more
than one passenger on a bike. A chapter or two would be devoted to
advice on riding with a pillion, but none on taking more than one.
That’s because most of these riding safety
literature are published by established foreign organizations armed
with extensive research data and decades of experience. Virtually
all these organizations—the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, for
example—are from the US, Europe, Japan or other First World
places. The concept of taking more than one pillion is simply alien
to them.
But not here. Or most other impoverished
nations. Here, we see them families on a bike like it were the most
natural thing on Earth. We see them scrimp on precious pesos for
public transport fare in exchange for their own safety and the
others around them. We see them—wittingly or not—flout traffic
rules. We see them expose the innocent to harm.
And like many of the things we ordinarily see
and routinely encounter—corruption in government or bad
rhinoplasty, for instance—we tend to accept it as right. We
shouldn’t.
A motorcycle is not a family car. Stop using it
like one.
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