The Image of the Emerging Cycling Landscape in the Philippines and Its Challenges

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has altered conventional systems including mobility. Between the mobility limitation imposed by the pandemic and the increasing demand for tourism and travel, the interest in bike recreation is peaking as the importance of health and well-being is being realized. In this light, landscape development for bike use is called for. Timely knowledge to cater to this demand comes from academic studies which are continuously produced for a better understanding of landscapes for cycling. Ideally, through research, current developments are properly investigated, reviewed, and enhanced. Unfortunately, in the case of the Philippines, only the latter statement holds. While there has been an interest in bike recreation, local research generated toward bike mobility is still limited. This slows down progress toward suitable cycling infrastructure development as managers lack guidance with the knowledge of literature to support their mobility strategies. Additionally, as the country relies on tourism as a major source of growth, the potential of active mobility to improve the local tourism industry and the lives of the people are stunted. This research investigated the emerging cycling landscape in the Philippines. Since the Philippine research on bike recreation is limited, academic studies globally were critiqued toward their practicality in the local context. Research data were then cross-referenced with practical experiences from seven Filipino cyclists through a focus group discussion. The discussion revolved around six emergent themes from Scopus-indexed journals (N = 148) during the past decade on bike recreation. Six themes (primary bikeway character; immediate bikeway environment; landscape impacts; policy and regulations; cyclist preparation; cycling activity) provided points for conversation. The participants were asked to also provide images of what they define to be a bike landscape for verification with content analysis. A better context of the emerging cycling landscape was formulated which could hopefully guide future development.