Before I joined the track and field team, I was first a biker.  Yup, I loved biking because of the wind in my face and the places I could go to.  I was in high school when I discovered the joy of biking and more importantly, I became one of the advocates of biking and walking to school instead of riding a car or a bus.  But all that time, we never had bike lanes in our City. Every time I got on my bike, one or both of my parents would shout out loud "be careful".

This is the sad fate of biker, Lorelie Melevo of Marikina, Rizal, a town ra few kilometers from my University. She is a single mother with two young kids and had just brought her little one to preschool when the accident that took away her life occurred.  Lorelie had dismounted from her bike and was going to walk her bike across the pedestrian lane when a dump truck hit her, killing her instantly.

As a result, a group of bikers called Firefly Brigade whose advocacy is to promote biking or cycling organized a bike ride participated in by hundreds of bikers to bring attention to the need for bike lanes.  Even our Senate President, Senator Franklin Drilon said: I love bicycles Let?s build bike lanes?.  Maybe it?s about time we have a national law that will require safe bike lanes if we are also going to promote environmentally friendly activities like biking.

What does biking do?  Not only does it keep us healthy, but it also helps in lessening the problem of air pollution because more people get around to the places they want to go to without riding cars or vehicles that depend on fossil fuels. 

It took the death of Lorelie to remind us that we do need safe bike lanes. We hope no one else becomes a victim to accidents when all we want to do is bike to our places of study, work or play.