METROPOLITAN Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Romando Artes is right in pushing for a busway on Commonwealth Avenue offering public transport vehicles an exclusive median lane free of congestion. With a busway, commuters will have two efficient and reliable mass transit options: rail and bus. It will be important to plan the busway properly and invest sufficiently so that it delivers a high-quality and high-capacity service on Commonwealth Avenue.
Traffic is never solved by building more roads for motor vehicles — Commonwealth Avenue already has nine lanes in each direction and yet is the “poster child” for severe traffic. As they say, “building more roads to solve traffic is just like buying wider pants to cure obesity.” More roads for four-wheeled motor vehicles attract increased car use and ultimately more congestion and pollution. It is also an unjust use of public funds, given that only 6 percent of Philippine households are car owners.
The majority of Filipinos are pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users, and their needs should have priority on all public roads, especially because they are also the most vulnerable road users. High volume corridors like Commonwealth Avenue should therefore prioritize the most efficient transportation modes — those that move people and goods safely and reliably with the most productive use of road space.
MRT 7, the rail project of San Miguel Corp., will also traverse Commonwealth Avenue. It makes good sense for both rail and bus to operate on the same corridor. All over the world — and in great cities like London, Singapore, Seoul and New York — you will find rail and bus services operating in tandem along corridors with a high volume of passengers. This is because the combination provides a higher quality of service — a passenger can transfer from one mode to the other and get closer to his or her destination. There is also great value in redundancy — having a second mass transit option in case one of them breaks down. Therefore, MRT 7 should not be the only mass transit option on the corridor. Moreover, a busway on Commonwealth may give struggling commuters relief ahead of the completion of MRT 7.
Some observers may argue that buses will no longer be required on Commonwealth Avenue once MRT 7 becomes operational. This argument should be rejected. As the EDSA experience shows, a high-volume corridor deserves more than one mass transit option. Major corridors like EDSA and Commonwealth, which are surrounded by densely populated communities, attract very large volumes of public transport users. Because there is considerable suppressed travel demand (due to the difficulty and insufficiency of public transport), we can expect many additional trips to be activated from residents around Commonwealth Avenue once there is a mass transit option that offers safety, convenience and reliability.
Today, hundreds of buses and jeepneys ply Commonwealth Avenue connecting northern areas of Bulacan and Quezon City to East Avenue, Quezon Avenue and EDSA. The problem is that most of these public transport vehicles are stuck in traffic, curtailing the number of round trips — therefore the number of passengers each vehicle can carry — within a day. As a result, public transport capacity on Commonwealth is shrinking steadily as traffic worsens, leaving many more commuters stranded or with very long waiting times.
The daily traffic nightmare also affects the revenue collection of transport operators, bringing many of them to the brink of bankruptcy. Bus and jeepney drivers are forced to work inhumanly long hours just to maintain the same take-home pay. We are all witness to this ongoing slow-motion disaster: as public transport shrinks and more commuters are compelled to use private vehicles, Commonwealth becomes even more congested.
Artes’ announcement this week that the MMDA would be studying the possibility of placing Commonwealth Avenue buses on a dedicated lane is therefore most welcome. As in the case of the EDSA Busway, a dedicated bus lane will permit buses to travel unimpeded by friction with private motor vehicles. Having the dedicated lane at the median is crucial because a curbside lane would be constantly obstructed by other motor vehicles wanting to turn right or to enter establishments at the curbside. A Commonwealth Avenue busway will enable bus commuters to cut their travel time in half or more. It will also attract many car users to shift to using public transport.
As the EDSA Busway has demonstrated, a dedicated median bus lane can be established in a relatively short period of time and at much lower cost than a railway. However, for both the EDSA Busway and the proposed busway for Commonwealth Avenue, it will be important to bring in the right technical expertise, prepare a comprehensive development plan and establish the proper institutional and financial framework to deliver a high-quality, high-capacity service. An ad hoc, piecemeal and uncoordinated approach should be avoided.
In the case of the EDSA Busway, for instance, accessibility remains a major shortcoming with passengers having to walk long distances and traverse many stairways to get to the bus platforms at ground level (persons with disability are, in effect, excluded from using the EDSA Busway). At most stations, the usable platform length is short, allowing only two buses to load and unload passengers simultaneously. There is also very poor weather protection at stations, with passengers exposed directly to any unfavorable weather. Boarding and alighting is slow, because buses have doors on the wrong side, and passengers have to walk in front of buses to get to and from the platform (raising both efficiency and safety issues). The good news is that these deficiencies can be rectified and busway capacity increased, up to four-fold, with investments in stations, vehicles, off-board fare collection and system management.
Both the EDSA Busway and the Commonwealth Avenue Busway should include passing lanes at stations (allowing buses to overtake those that are loading and unloading passengers at a station). Passing lanes will raise the capacity of the busway considerably and enhance its functionality by enabling buses to skip stops and operate express services. It will also be highly desirable for the Commonwealth Avenue Busway to be fully integrated with the EDSA Busway, making it possible for a person boarding a bus at Fairview to go all the way on the same bus to Ayala Avenue or to NAIA (as they were able to do in the pre-pandemic period, but now with much shorter travel times).
All over the Philippines, reliable and financially sustainable public transport services are possible when buses are able to move along traffic-free dedicated lanes. The key is for decision-makers to accept that high-capacity public transportation vehicles deserve priority on our roads, even if it means taking away road space from private motor vehicles. When everyone is already stuck in traffic, it makes sense to reconfigure existing road space so that public transport becomes an efficient and convenient travel option. Kudos to the MMDA chairman for pushing for this.
Robert Y. Siy is a development economist, city and regional planner, and public transport advocate. He is a co-convenor of the Move As One Coalition. He can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter @RobertRsiy.
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