(In April 2018, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 3 as International World Bicycle Day. Professor Leszek Sibilski, a Polish social scientist working in the United States, led the grassroots initiative behind it. Today, bicycle advocates all over the world continue to promote biking for health and the environment.)

Bicycle advocate Pio Gerona Fortuno Jr. continues to encourage people to shift to biking as a viable means of transportation.

“A person who knows how to bike would have a definite advantage over someone who just drives or commutes,” he said. “You exercise, you don’t spend as much, and you don’t cause as much pollution.”

Pio said it was partly sad and partly good that bike use exploded as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Managers would call frontliners to work. So how would they go to work? Some will be walking,” Pio said. To help frontliners, he started an initiative to borrow bikes from friends and lend them to frontliners.

Pio is a member of two biking groups, the Firefly Brigade and Tiklop Society of the Philippines. He has been a member of the brigade since the late 1990s, while he co-founded TSP in 2009.

Pio also lived in the United States for several years. There he saw the beauty of folding bikes. “You could bring it on the train with you for long trips, then take it out and bike again. I thought to myself that when I get home, I want to promote this,” he said.

Around the same time he founded TSP, Pio and some colleagues got the Light Rail Transit Authority to enact the Bike On-Bike Off initiative, which allowed passengers to bring their folding bikes onto the train.

At first, Pio said, folding bikes were not quite in vogue yet. “They looked funny with small wheels, especially when the rider is a big person,” he added. But when the Bike On-Bike Off initiative started, folding bikes started to sell faster.

“One problem with other types of bikes is you don’t know where to leave the bike. You can bring folding bikes up to your office space. Folding bikes are an elegant solution,” Pio said.

Before the pandemic struck, Pio and other members in his bike groups would hold lectures on the basics of bike use and maintenance. Lately, because of restrictions on mass gatherings, he has been trying to hold these online.

Pio and his wife would also sometimes coach and accompany friends and other people who have just started bike commuting.

Asked about what the government should do to promote biking, Pio said it should make sure that bike lanes are safe for cyclists. “The problem is motorcycles are also using bike lanes. A physical barrier is needed to make sure the lanes are marked off properly.”

However, he is now happy that the government is already listening to biking advocates. “I have always stressed that if the government wants to set up a program for bikers, they should seek the advice of people who bike.”

For now, he advises cyclists not to travel in large groups. “We’re still in a pandemic. It’s nice to ride in big groups, but I advise not to do that yet. Go solo or in small groups.” He also advised bikers to keep bringing masks and face shields with them to use at their destinations.