EDITORIAL - Rethink the BRT while there is still time

Anybody who has gone through uptown Cebu these days will not take much coaxing to notice that traffic is getting to be near impossible even outside of peak hours. The areas around or leading to or away from Fuente Osmeña, in particular, are fast becoming one huge gridlock whose effects extend and radiate outward to affect even more areas. Escario, Gorordo and the Ban-Tal corridor have become sheer monstrosities.

The proposed bus rapid transit system, already approved, is ostensibly meant to address this problem — that is, on paper. But the reality is, as is very apparent to those who have been to these areas, is that the BRT, if pushed through, will not only NOT solve the problem, it will only exacerbate it. It will make the problem worse than it is today.

It is true the BRT has succeeded in the many places abroad that have chosen to adopt the system. The problem with those who are pushing it here is that they only take note of the success rate but completely ignore the circumstances responsible for achieving it. They shoved under the rug the glaring reality than in all the places the BRT had been successful, the situation on the ground is completely different from what is obtaining in Cebu.

For example, in virtually all of the places where the BRT is successful, the existing roads are two, three times wider than in Cebu. Unlike Cebu, these other places in the world do not have jeepneys. In these other places, both the population and the population density are the exact opposite Cebu's. And in those other places, drivers are disciplined, courteous and law abiding, unlike in Cebu which only recently earned the dubious distinction of being the worst place to drive in.

If the proponents of the BRT get to have their way, against the wishes of the overwhelming majority, the exclusive lanes that will be dedicated to the buses in the system will eat into the already congested and narrow roads that Cebu has. Take Osmeña Boulevard, for instance. It was named a boulevard only because at the time it was built, it was the biggest road in Cebu and there were only a handful of vehicles using it then.

But today, the three lanes on either side of the three-foot-wide island divide running almost the entire length of Osmeña Boulevard can hardly accommodate the traffic it used to absorb with ease. Take away two lanes from Osmeña Boulevard for use of the BRT will further scrimp the already tight roadway. One can already shudder just contemplating the utter chaos that will set it once that happens.

In the end, the tradeoff is not going to be an efficient one. What the few BRT buses can offer is just a pittance of what they will be taking away. This is not an indictment of the BRT system but an indictment of the BRT system as proposed to be rammed down the throats of Cebuanos. Why it is being insisted upon despite its impracticality here only gives rise to suspicions that should have no place under the present administration.