Tomas: BRT won’t solve traffic woes

CEBU, Philippines - One of the proponents of the Bus Rapid Transit in Cebu City admitted that the system won’t solve the existing traffic problem in the city.

Former mayor Tomas R. Osmeña, who initiated the project study during his incumbency, said the BRT system may not be the total solution to the problem but it would help decongest the traffic.

It was Osmeña who asked help from  foreign government to make feasibility study about the BRT system. Osmeña and some city officials even went to Bogota, Columbia and Curitiba in Brazil to observe how the system help address traffic problem in these places.

After several years, the National Economic and Development Authority approved the project last May. It will be built under a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

The Cebu BRT system will have 176 buses plying through exclusive bus-ways from Bulacao to Talamban, with a possible link going to the South Road Properties.

Rafael Christopher Yap, executive officer of the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management, said the technical personnel are expected to start working for the engineering designs by next month.

Osmeña said the BRT alone cannot totally solve the traffic congestion problem throughout the city because the BRT routes only covers from Bulacao passing Natalio Bacalso Avenue, Osmeña Boulevard to Capitol, right turn to Escario, left turn to Archbishop Reyes Avenue then to Governor Mariano Cuenco Avenue to Talamban and vice versa. The project would have 33 stations that cover a distance of 23 kilometers.

Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the BRT systems around the world have been successful in mobilizing masses of people in dense urban settings, getting them to their destinations reliably through fixed schedules, efficiently through segregated lanes and priority passage, comfortably and safely through modern, well-equipped buses, and affordably through relatively lower capital costs and maintenance expenditures.  – /FPL) (FREEMAN)