The rainy season is upon us once more, and that doesn’t just mean floods around the metro—that also means more riders waiting under flyovers and overpasses to take shelter from the rain.
An oddly specific and almost random mention of this phenomenon, you might say, but I beg to differ. Recently, I was caught in the middle of a downpour while I was on EDSA. Lo and behold, the next overpass I came across, just a hundred meters or so down the road, I saw riders waiting underneath it. Mind you, the rain had just started at that point. That’s when I remembered that it’s about time again that we put out this regular PSA.
In case you’re a motorcycle rider and you haven’t realized this yet, stopping underneath a flyover or overpass when it starts to rain is not much different from suddenly stopping in the middle of the road for no reason. There’s a chance you won’t be properly seen by oncoming motorists, and you put yourself and other road users at risk of a serious accident. This mostly applies to high-traffic major thoroughfares like EDSA or C5.
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Now, before you go on and tell me that I don’t know what it’s like, so I have no right to say anything, let me stop you there. I do know what it’s like to be a motorcycle rider in the rainy season. As a matter of fact, I recently rode through heavy rains on EDSA myself. I was en route to Mandaluyong, and I just passed Makati when the rain started to pour. I rode as safely as I could to the next gasoline station and took shelter there. And since I didn’t have any rain gear with me, I opted to completely wait it out there.
I didn’t inconvenience anyone, nor did I endanger myself or other motorists in the process. There were actually many of us who had to stop and wait at that specific station, and unsurprisingly, nobody shooed us away. None of us were blocking the pumps, anyway, so we weren’t really doing any harm to anyone while we were there.
Now, some of you might say that stopping under a flyover to get your rain gear on should be okay. Personally, I wouldn’t even advise that. You’d need a good minute to do all that, and if other riders follow suit, traffic will build up fast. There’s just no going around it—the best solution here is to stop at a safe location that isn’t just by the side of the road.
Several years ago, back in 2018, we already made a full article complete with tips about this. But it seems reposting that guide isn’t enough, and we felt compelled to make a new PSA now that we’re eight months into 2025 as of this writing. So again, from one rider to another, please, learn to find safe shelter when it rains.
