If you are elderly with a mobility problem or a parent who needs to bring your children someplace else, your option a few years ago would be limited to calling a pedicab or tricycle, especially if the trip is just a few kilometers away.

Booking a taxi or ride-hailing, while convenient, can be expensive, while riding a jeepney or bus would be fraught with danger for an elderly or a parent with children in tow.

Enter electric tricycles or e-trikes from China that are affordable. They don't need to be registered with the Land Transportation Office (local government registration will do), and can be operated by anyone even without a valid driver's license.

All of a sudden, elderly individuals, parents and even students now have a means to drive anywhere, anytime. It's like having their own cars but without worrying about the price of fuel since they only need to make sure their e-trikes' have a fully charged battery.

But here lies the problem. Exasperated motorists complain that e-trikes can now be seen anywhere and since they move at a much lower speed, they often disrupt the flow of traffic, especially on busy roads (they shouldn't be in main roads in the first place).

This difference in speed could force other motorists to overtake or make sudden lane changes that may result in accidents.

Moreover, motorists say that a lot of these e-trikes do not follow basic traffic rules.

Because a number of these e-trikes have inadequate or worse, no longer have working lights and turn signals, they pose a danger to other road users. Without properly working signal lights, e-trike operators cannot adequately warn road users about their intention to change lane or to go left or right, increasing the risk of collisions.

Cyclists and pedestrians are also not happy since these e-trikes move silently and sometimes startle them whenever they come darting from behind. Weighing around 500 kilograms, a collision with e-trikes could result to something worse for cyclists or pedestrians.

Currently, LTO Administrative Order No. 2021-039 (or the Consolidated Guidelines in the Classification, Registration, and Operation of All Types of Electric Motor Vehicles), allows e-trikes to be operated without the need to be registered or their operators having a driver's license.