Continuing with its efforts to promote biking to school, the Department of Transportation has laid out a directory listing schools near bike lanes along with maps showing the bike-lane networks in different cities.

While these may look neat, the reality on the ground is much worse due to poor road conditions and dangerous motorist behavior—rendering the bike lanes practically unusable. These aren’t safe, even for adults and experienced cyclists, so how could children traverse these on a daily basis?

Here are the maps:

With traffic being worse than in pre-pandemic times, encouraging cycling among students and faculty members will help decongest the roads while promoting sustainable and clean mobility.

We commend the DOTr for trying to promote biking, but for it to be effective, it must be backed up with sustained efforts in improving the infrastructure.