Nearly 300 drivers were flagged down and warned during the first two days of the dry run activity for the implementation of a new policy prohibiting all provincial buses to enter Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.
Beginning Aug. 1, the Metro Manila Development Authority will not allow provincial buses coming from the Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon to enter Edsa during rush hours to improve the flow of traffic along the 23.8-kilometer highway.
During the first day of the dry run on Tuesday, MMDA traffic enforcers apprehended 219 provincial buses, 86 of them caught during the morning rush hours between 7 am to 10 am while 133 others were apprehended from 6 pm to 9 pm.
MMDA chief information officer Sharon Gentalian said as of 10 am on Wednesday (second day), a total of 77 provincial buses were apprehended, a majority or 67 of those caught along the northbound lane while 10 others on the southbound.
“Both northbound and southbound provincial buses are banned from traversing along Edsa from Pasay City until Cubao in Quezon City from 7 am to 10 am and from 6 pm to 9 pm on weekdays,” she said.
MMDA general manager Jose Arturo Garcia Jr. said as an incentive, all provincial buses traversing Edsa were exempted from the United Vehicular Volume Reduction Program or the number coding scheme.
But he said “provincial buses plying C-5 Road, streets of Manila, and elsewhere are not covered by the number coding exemption.”
Provincial buses from the south that do not have terminals in Pasay City are advised to use the agency-operated Southwest Interim Provincial Terminal in Parañaque City.
The MMDA is expecting a faster turn-around of provincial buses once the regulation is fully enforced during the morning and evening rush hours.
“We expect that the regulation would speed up travel of private motorists and passenger buses using the yellow lane along Edsa during peak hours,” said Garcia.
The MMDA official said they are also coordinating with Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board on the reduction of passengers’ fare.
Garcia said the regulation will be effective until the three bus terminals being constructed are operational.
These are: Bus terminal in Valenzuela set to be operational in August; Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange set to open on September and bus terminal in Sta. Rosa, Laguna expected to open on December.
The MMDA came up with the policy after members of the Metro Manila Council, the agency’s governing board composed of 17 mayors and local executives in Metro Manila, agreed to its proposal to ease traffic congestion in the metropolis caused by simultaneous road projects in the second half of 2018.
The government is targeting improving the traffic condition in Metro Manila by establishing modern transport hubs outside the metropolis and preventing provincial buses from passing through Edsa.
Three years ago, the mayors agreed with the plan removing bus terminals along Edsa in line with the government’s solution to the worsening traffic situation in the National Capital Region.
Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista and Pasay City Mayor Antonio Calixto, whose jurisdictions have the most numbers of bus terminals, were the first local executives who signed the resolution entitled “Rationalizing the Operations of Provincial Buses and its Terminals Along Edsa.”
MMDA records showed there were 85 provincial bus companies situated in Metro Manila.
Of the 85 provincial bus companies, 46 firms have terminals along Edsa, particularly in Cubao, Balintawak and Taft Avenue.
Around 3,300 provincial buses and 12,000 city buses pass through Edsa daily.
Traffic in the NCR caused an estimated productivity loss of around P2.4 billion a day or more than P800 billion a year.
Authorities stated that with the right systems from the government combined with sacrifices and discipline from the people, the worsening traffic problem in the metropolis will be resolved.