Quezon City 4th district Rep. Marvin Rillo (Rep. Rillo's office)

Congress has doubled the funding for the Active Transport and Safe Pathways Program (ATSPP) from P500 million to P1 billion this year in order to accelerate the development of protected bicycle lanes. 

Quezon City 4th district Rep. Marvin Rillo, a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, bared this in a statement on Tuesday, Jan. 2. 

“In the 2024 General Appropriations Law, we bumped up to P1 billion the budget for bicycle lanes with durable physical separation from mixed traffic lanes,” said Rillo. 

“This is our way of reassuring Filipinos that cycling is a sustainable alternative mode of mobility,” the rookie lawmaker stressed. 

“We are absolutely determined to promote cycling and lessen harmful motor vehicle emissions in the interest of public health,” he added. 

Before the P1-billion allocation for 2024, the ATSPP had initially received P2 billion in 2022 and P705 million in 2023. 

The program has so far established 564 kilometers of bicycle lanes throughout Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao as of June 2023. 

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) projects the country’s bicycle lane network to reach 2,400 kilometers by 2028. 

Rillo, vice chairperson of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, noted that the ATSPP provides funding for the construction, maintenance, and improvement of protected bicycle lanes and pedestrian walkways in metropolitan areas, highly urbanized cities, and independent component cities. 

It also bankrolls the procurement of bicycle racks, the development of end-of-trip cycling and support facilities, and the upgrading of pop-up bicycle lanes into permanent ones. 

Under the program, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure shall be protected and shall include shaded walkways and urban shade trees wherever feasible.