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THE FERGUSON CYCLIST
by Gerry Noll
FEBRUARY 2010
Recently I had the opportunity to visit Manila
in the Philippines for one full month. While there my wife regularly
fed me reports about the weather back in Ferguson. Cold, snow,
etc. My reports to her on the Manila weather were monotonous...85-90
degrees, sunny, not very humid, cooling off into the 70s at night.
As a cyclist that means good weather for riding!
Before leaving for Manila I had tried to find
out as much as I could about bicycling in the Philippines. Right
away it became obvious that there were hardly any bike stores
with a website. In fact I found none. But I did find the website
of an interesting group over there, the Firefly Brigade (http://www.fireflybrigade.org/).
They are a volunteer group which works for clean air and encourages
bicycling as a way to reduce the pollution that is poisoning Manila's
air. They ask the question, "When was the last time you saw fireflies
in the city?"
After a few emails to the Firefly Brigade and
to distributors of major bicycle brands I had a list of bike stores
to visit after my arrival in Manila. That list plus a few local
leads led me to "Bikezilla" where I purchased a "foldie" bike.
Foldies are bicycles that can be folded into a compact shape.
They don't have all of the capabilities of a mountain bike or
a road bike but they are outstanding for taking on trips. They
can be folded up to fit in car trunks, on trains, on planes, even
on boats (as you will see shortly). A mountain or road bike wasn't
necessary in Manila, plus I planned to take a few trips out of
the city where the ability to fold up the bike would be handy.
So a foldie made a good choice.
My fellow-workers in Manila, none of whom were
bicyclists, warned me that the heavy traffic made it unsafe for
cycling. And it is true that the traffic is almost always congested
and grid-locked, drivers pay no attention to any rules, pedestrians
randomly walk into the street, etc. Many intersections have no
traffic control. Everyone coming into the intersection negotiates
with every other vehicle to see who gets to go next. But...everyone
drives relatively slowly because of this. No speeding cars here,
it's too dangerous with all of the random stuff going on. So I
found the roads to be easy to ride on. Often I was able to blend
in with the traffic and go at their pace.
Seeing this in action was eye-opening. In the
States the road system is designed to be safe for car travel at
high speeds. The end result: cars travel very fast in the U.S.
In fact it seems like we take speed limits to be "suggestions"
or even as "minimums". High speed car traffic is very dangerous
to bicyclists. In Manila the roads aren't designed with safety
in mind at all. Consequently, everyone drives relatively slowly.
Low speed car traffic is very friendly to bicyclists. My conclusion
was that the roads of Manila were safer overall for a bicyclist
than the roads in the U.S.
Gigit, Charlene, and Gerry with their folding bikes after
a ferry trip to Corregidor Island. |
The bicycling highlight of the time I spent in
Manila was a trip to Corregidor Island. This is a small island
situated at the entry to Manila Bay. American and Filipino forces
under General MacArthur made their last stand against the Japanese
at the start of WWII on Corregidor. MacArthur was there until
near the end and left while uttering his famous statement: "I
shall return". After the fall of Corregidor the troops were forced
to go on what became known as the Bataan Death March. Corregidor
is worth researching on the Internet. Lots of history.
The island is now very peaceful. There are almost
no cars, just lots of war memorials and bombed-out ruins amid
beautiful tropical scenery. It's a great place to bike and explore.
One Sunday I took my foldie down to Manila harbor, loaded it onto
a ferry, and spent the day on Corregidor exploring. To my surprise
two Filipinos showed up at the dock with foldies to do the same
thing! The accompanying picture shows Gigit, Charlene, and I on
the dock with our foldies.
* * *
Last month I told about getting an "inclinometer"
as a Christmas gift. This gizmo lets me measure the incline of
a hill as I ride up it. In that column I reported the gradient
of some of Fergusons' steepest hills. But I left one out. Dorothy
Seiter reminded me that Powell Ave. is one of the steepest hills
around. I agree. In the April issue of the Ferguson Times I will
report its steepness. How steep do you think it is? Send your
guess to the email address below and I will also announce who
had the closest guess of the actual steepness of Powell.
* * *
If you want to talk about cycling,
or comment on this column, you can reach me at: GRNoll@sbcglobal.net
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