The bike and e-scooter rentals in BGC are awesome but you have to take note of some things before getting on a ride.
First Bike Ride and Instagram cycling community Roji Riders PH tried the bike-sharing scheme Moovr in Bonifacio Global City (BGC)and we enjoyed it, even if we experienced little problems.
Bicycle-sharing systems are helpful and we think that it works well in bike-friendly places like BGC. If you need to go from one place to another, let’s say with a distance of 1.5 kilometers away from each, it’s more convenient to ride a bike than walk or drive through traffic and find another parking slot.
It has seen success in countries like the Netherlands, France, USA and China, among others. But will it work in the Philippines? It can, especially if there’s a safe and good bike infrastructure.
University of the Philippines in Diliman has been doing it for years and it’s really ideal to have a bike-sharing scheme there. The campus is bike-friendly. In BGC, with its good road systems, we believe that this would work.
When freelance designer Rachel Mutia uploaded her Moovr bicycle ride on Instagram, we instantly wanted to do a test ride to see for ourselves how it works, if it’s worth it, and whether it would be a great idea for a group ride.
It’s still a bike ride in the city after all, something that interests Roji Riders PH and First Bike Ride. We invited Rachel to join us for a Friday morning trip, as her videos looked really cool and it would be awesome to try this with her.
The process is pretty simple: download the Moovr app on your smartphone, register, and top up a minimum of 200 pesos using Gcash or credit/debit card. Once you’re done with the registration, it’s time to ride. Using a QR code, you can unlock a bike and start riding. It’s rather straight forward but we have to take note that we were charged 15 pesos twice because we ended trips after having problems unlocking one of the bicycles.
Cycling with Moovr was chill, it’s really meant to transport people. The single-speed bike is pretty heavy so it’s difficult to speed up and it takes a few minutes to get accustomed to the weight. If you’re worried about the height, the saddle can be adjusted.
Is this ideal for newbies?
We can recommend this to those who want to try riding a bike alongside motorists and those who want to try crossing intersections. BGC has good bike infrastructure, wide bike lanes, and good road design so it can be easy for new bikers.
It’s a cute date activity for couples and a great experience for a group ride.
But most of all, it fits well for those who want to conveniently move around BGC.
Since it’s exclusively used in BGC, the rider can just park the bike somewhere and end the trip if he needs to go inside a store or a restaurant. Moovr charges one peso per minute for the bike ride.
We also enjoyed using Moovr’s e-scooter, which has a 25kph maximum speed. It’s pretty heavy too but is very easy to use, just take note that it can accelerate fast. It costs 50 pesos for 20 minutes.
Unlike the bikes, it charges for every 20 minutes of use, so be careful not to go past the time of you don’t want to be charged another 50. Take note that the e-scooter only work within Moovr’s effective range. When you go past it, the scooter will stop running and alert you through constant beeps.
The Moovr PH ride was fun! We’ll definitely do it again and we want more people to join us next time. Please watch out for a community ride announcement soon over Roji Riders PH’ Instagram page.
This post was originally uploaded on Roji Riders PH Instagram account.
