TRICYCLES, 2-STROKE MOTORBIKES WON'T BE PHASED OUT
By Jerry E. Esplanada
Inquirer
Last updated 10:28pm (Mla time) 11/19/2006
GOOD NEWS FOR the nearly two million owners of two-stroke motorcycles and tricycles nationwide: The government has abandoned its plan to phase out the two- and three-wheeled vehicles which have been identified as major sources of air and noise pollution.
Instead, their engines will be retrofitted with a direct-injection fuel system, converting them into environment-friendly modes of land transport, according to the Public Transport Affairs Office (PTAO), an agency attached to the Office of the President.
At least 1.7 million of the 2.8 million tricycles nationwide have two-stroke engines which burn a mixture of oil and gasoline.
Three years ago, the Arroyo administration banned the importation of two-stroke motor vehicles and stopped registering these smokebelchers, which have been plying many urban and rural routes since the 1960s.
Finally, we have found a win-win solution to the tricycle sectors problem. Tricycle drivers can now keep their jobs using the same twostroke units, which after retrofitting will no longer be considered major sources of air and noise pollution, Presidential Assistant Ariel Lim, PTAO head, has told the Inquirer.
Lim, former president of the National Confederation of Tricycle Operators and Drivers Associations of the Philippines, was referring to Retrofit kits which cost about P15,000 each and locally distributed by the non-profit group Envirofit Philippines Inc.
Retrofitting means at least P70 in daily savings, P1,700 in monthly savings and P20,400 in annual savings, said an Envirofit flyer which also touts More power and less fuel for its retrofit kits.
An Envirofit representative claimed retrofitting would reduce hydrocarbon emissions by up to 90 percent and air pollution by 75 percent.
A 2005 study commissioned by the Asian Development Bank and the governments of Spain and Norway cited the technology, among other air and noise pollution reduction strategies. Tricycles in Puerto Princesa City and Quezon City were the subjects of the ADB study.
The ADB selected Puerto Princesa and Quezon City “due to their different degrees of urbanization while sharing the same environmental issues caused by tricycles.
According to the study, retrofitting will reduce fuel consumption by 35 percent, 2T oil consumption by 50 percent, hydrocarbons by 70- 90 percent, carbon monoxide by 50-70 percent, and particulate matter by 80 percent.
The ADB has extended an P8-million grant to Puerto Princesa, said to be the country's cleanest and greenest city, for its two-stroke conversion program, Lim said.
With the ADB aid, the city government plans to shoulder at least half of the conversion expenses. More than 1,500 of the city's 4,000- plus tricycles have two-stroke engines.
About 60 tricycle drivers and operators have already availed of P716,000 in livelihood loans from the ADB grant.
In 2004, tests in the Palawan capital revealed that average hydrocarbon emissions by tricycles were still below the Clean Air Act standard of 7,800 parts per million, Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn said.
But why wait till the city's air pollution level becomes serious? Hagedorn said.
The ADB study cited a World Health Organization report which said 12 of the 15 cities with the highest level of particulate matters and 6 of the 15 cities with the highest level of sulfur dioxide are located in Asia.
While it is seemingly common in the light of rapid urbanization, vehicular emissions are predominantly severe in the Philippines where one-third of the vehicular population is composed of two- and three-wheeled vehicles, the report said.
