Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Monday rolled out the updated routes of the city’s bus augmentation program.
She identified eight updated bus routes, pick-up and drop-off points for the convenience of the commuters.
“We have thoroughly studied the routes and pick-up points,” the mayor said.
Earlier, Belmonte entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board to help provide additional transportation for the riding public.
“We are expecting that the program could significantly ease the shortage of public transportation and safely transport the commuters to their point of destination,” she said.
Under the partnership, the LTFRB shall grant provisional authority for public utility buses to be selected from bidders or bus operators to ply throughout the city’s eight routes.
The updated routes included Quezon City hall-Cubao, Quezon City hall-Litex/IBP Road, Welcome Rotonda-Aurora Boulevard/Katipunan, Quezon City Hall-General Luis, Quezon City Hall-Mindanao Avenue/Quirino, Quezon City hall-Gilmore, Quezon City hall-C5/Ortigas Avenue Extension and Quezon City hall-Muñoz.
City administrator Michael Alimurung said the program is open to the public during its initial run, but it would eventually require passengers to present the “soon-to-be-released” QCitizen ID card.
He allayed fears that the program would contribute to traffic congestion, saying buses would only stop on designated pick-up and drop-off points along their routes.
“We also expect the program to reduce the number of private cars as motorists might opt to take our bus en route to their destination,” he said.