• A specially-designed tricycle for PWDs and senior citizens was launched by Marikina City
• The tricycle is called Adaptive Mobile Vehicle
• It has special features that make travelling around the city safer and more convenient for PWDs
The Marikina City government’s launching of the first public utility vehicle that is PWD-friendly (persons with disability) was held on the city’s Freedom Park on Monday, January 11.
The vehicle, a specially designed tricycle called Adaptive Mobile Vehicle (AMV), has special features that makes traveling around the city safe and comfortable for PWDs as well as for senior citizens.
Noting the absence of PWD-friendly public transport in the country, Marikina Vice Mayor Jose Fabian Cadiz conceptualized the AMV for the 5,000 PWDs who are living in the city.
“The absence of a PWD-friendly vehicle in the country is short of telling PWDs that they aren’t allowed on public conveyances because of the difficulty in riding them,” the vice mayor said in an interview.
Jovic Yee, in his article for the Philippine Daily Inquirer dated January 11, 2016, described the AMV’s special features that would allow wheelchair-bound passengers to go around the city with ease even with just the driver as companion.
The specially-designed tricycle is wider and taller than the conventional ones and can carry up to three passengers. It has safety handle bars, rubberized flooring and clamps to the wheelchair in place while the AMV is moving. The vehicle’s seat inside the sidecar is foldable to allow more room for the wheelchair and its sidecar door turns into a ramp when opened for easier entry and exit.
Cadiz said the AMV, which has a maximum speed of 30 kilometers per hour, is painted yellow with a sign on its rear that reads “keep distance” to warn other motorists that the vehicle is carrying PWDs and senior citizens.
The city plans to build twenty more AMV units within the year. A unit of the vehicle costs P110,000, about P10,000 more than a regular tricycle.
PWDs and senior citizens can call a hotline so the AMV could pick them up anywhere within the city.