Funny thing – I was just discussing the merits of the EDSA Busway in my inaugural column for last week, and here we are with suggestions to dismantle the entire system.
In case you haven’t heard (or have become so exhausted with the mad rush of news that some of you have simply decided to go “off-line”), Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Don Artes floated the absurd idea of removing the EDSA Busway entirely, as measures to reduce traffic along Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare.
Motorists (particularly, I believe, those who have been fined for attempting to use the EDSA Busway) are happy. Commuters are not.
While several aspects of the EDSA Busway, particularly the “accessibility” part (especially for senior citizens and persons with disabilities) have been questioned, the general consensus among many commuters is that the system that was first implemented during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the best the Department of Transportation (DOTr) had had in a long while.
After all, with a dedicated busway, buses can now travel faster along EDSA, unlike in the old normal where they had to share the road with private cars that – and let me be blunt here – are the real cause of the heavy traffic jams along EDSA.
Not to mention that there are still a**hole motorists, particularly some politicians, who try to assert their misplaced power by attempting to pass through the EDSA Busway despite explicit prohibitions. Sino ngayon ang pasaway sa kalsada?
Of course, there are some features of the EDSA Busway that merits improvement.
One of these is restoring the “old normal” bus stops, particularly along the Crossing and Cubao areas where, currently, commuters have to walk for up to a kilometer just to catch a bus.
Number two: if we are, indeed, serious in restoring the old “pre-pandemic” routes, why not retain the EDSA Busway and then require bus companies to abide by the standards for the busway such as using low-floor buses? After all, some bus companies have already begun switching to low-floor buses for their EDSA routes even before the busway came into use, so this would come in handy.
The bottom line in this issue is this: The system is already there. And it’s working wonders for the commuters who, before the Covid-19 pandemic, also had to endure heavy traffic. So why undo the system?
Is it yet another case of the “car-centric” culture that has taken hold among many of our government officials, leading them to focus more on constructing more toll roads and skyways rather than addressing the roots of our mobility woes?
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