2-stroke engine trikes, noisy motorcycles banned

BALANGA CITY – A few days from now, the city government for health reasons will ban along its roads passenger tricycles with twostroke engines and noisy motorcycles, Mayor Jose Enrique Garcia III said Monday.

The city mayor said they were supposed to implement in full last August 16, 2015 an ordinance calling for the conversion of twostroke engines of passenger tricycles into four-stroke and prohibiting motorcycles with high decibel whine that exceed noise limits in the city.

The implementation of the ordinance was postponed to hear comments and suggestions from other sectors like
members of motorcycle riders associations.

“The sangguniang panlungsod will collate and study all the comments and recommendations for possible inclusion in the ordinance and a few days from now, we will fully implement the regulation,” Garcia said.

He said that the city government has successfully implemented the No Smoking ordinance that has earned Balanga national and international awards.

“This time, we want passenger tricycles plying our streets to help in having quality air in the city,” the mayor said. He said that most illnesses are caused by air pollution.

He said that a traffic count conducted showed that there are 40,171 vehicle trips per day in the city proper. “Of this number, 72 percent or 29,000 trips are from tricycles, majority of which use two-stroke engines,” Garcia said.

He said that only 150 tricycles out of more than 3,000 passenger tricycles with franchise in Balanga remained with two-stroke engines after the city embarked on a massive information dissemination campaign and offered subsidy of P5,000 for each tricycle that will upgrade from two-stroke to four-stroke.

“We have been doing the information dissemination and subsidy offer for already five years, so you will see that the implementation of the ordinance is gradual,” the mayor said.

Garcia said studies showed that four-stroke engines emit much lesser hydro- carbon and carbon monoxide compared to two-stroke engines. Using four-stroke results in cleaner emissions.

Gilbert Izon, secretary of the Bataan Riders Club, said the phase-out of twostrokes will be in conformity with the Clean Air Act. “Mausok ang two-stroke,” he said.

Izon and other members of motorcycle clubs asked Garcia if they can use silencers in mufflers of their motorcycles so they will not be banned in Balanga.

Their motorcycles mostly have 115 decibel noise above the city’s requirement of 84 decibel sound.

The mayor said the request will be studied by the SP.