BRT as the future of the Edsa Busway
August is among the deadliest rainy months in Metro Manila.
In 2015, the deluge caused a “carmageddon.” Commuters took eight long hours to walk home, while many others were stranded.
For the first time, the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) organized a Traffic, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with me as the chair to address the severe problem.
It’s been 10 years now since I submitted a PowerPoint presentation on Aug. 26, 2015, at the packed monthly general membership meeting.
The presentation included illustrated short, medium and long-term solutions to the traffic and transportation problems in Metro Manila.
The PNoy (Aquino) administration took cognizance of the severe traffic problem.
At the Cabinet meeting a week after, Secretary Rene Almendras was put in charge of traffic, although a czar had been recommended in the MAP position paper. Two other measures had been immediately implemented.
But a key solution, the proposed Edsa busway, was not implemented.
It called for the transfer of the two outermost “yellow” bus lanes to the innermost lane adjacent to the MRT 3 tracks.
The solution was inspired by the busway system introduced in Runcorn, United Kingdom.
Admittedly, the Edsa busway was a drastic solution given the chaotic traffic conditions on Edsa then.
However, without structural change, traffic continued to be very bad on Edsa and commuters fumed at the intermittently long hours stranded on the buses.
The opportunity for change came when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020.
On June 1, 2020, the busway was ordered tested by then Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade.
At 8:00 AM of June 1, 2020, the trip from Edsa North Ave. up to Ayala Ave. in Makati took only 26 minutes on the busway. Before the busway, that stretch took at least one hour or more.
While traffic on the private car lanes inched forward, a new normal was born with buses traveling without congestion.
“The Edsa busway is the most effective solution ever conceived in a long time to solve traffic congestion in Edsa”, said former Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus.
A total of 326.361 million bus commuters were carried from the start of the busway on June 1, 2020, to November 30, 2024, or a period of four years and six months.
A record one-day ridership of 454,649 was reported on December 27, 2023. Commuting on the busway became predictable.
Transferring the bus lane to the innermost lane enabled only authorized buses onto the busway. This solved the problem of the “yellow” bus lanes that even unauthorized buses were able to easily use.
Department of Budget and Management Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, Department of Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon, and Quezon City Rep. Franz Pumaren inspect the ongoing rehabilitation of the EDSA-North Avenue Busway Station and other active transport projects in Quezon City on Thursday, August 7, 2025. The inspection includes upgraded bike lanes, sidewalk improvements, and PUV stop construction to enhance commuter safety and promote sustainable mobility in the city.
—INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
Reform features
The dedicated bus lane forced buses to load and unload only in authorized bus stations, thus eliminating the multidecade-old boundary problem where bus drivers competed against each other in whatever location to secure enough fares to cover the minimum bus charge.
These two reform features made the Edsa carousel line on the new busway more efficient. This showed that efficiency in bus operations is the key to higher commuter throughput, lower air pollution and less time wastage in traffic.
Gone are the days when over 3,500 units of buses were fielded daily on the two outermost bus lanes just to stagnate in traffic. Now, less than 600 units run on the single-lane busway without any traffic congestion.
Despite its remarkable performance, however, the busway hasn’t been completed until now. Budgetary support for its infrastructure requirement has been limited, even none in some years.
Notable is the entire section on Edsa and Diosdado Macapagal Avenue in Pasay City up to PITX in Parañaque, where busway development is yet to begin.
What is needed to improve its efficiency is the construction of dedicated busway stops in strategic areas along the busway; the stops should be complemented with convenient passenger overpasses across Edsa to the stops in the median lane.
Both former DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista and current Secretary Vince Dizon enthusiastically support the busway.
The final solution is privatization and a study is currently being undertaken with the intention to convert the busway line into a bus rapid transit system or BRT under private management.
Pres. Marcos has announced an end to the car-centric policy covering our roads. This means priority will be given to mass public transport as the primary means of mobility, while cars will get secondary priority. Rightly so as public roads are finite public resources that should serve the majority.
Standards
Bus rapid transit is far more complex than a busway as it is subject to a standards which serve as a guideline for its development. BRTs are suitable for metropolitan areas with heavy volume of commuters. But to be considered a BRT, the bus line must adhere to basic guidelines. To attain the gold standard, a line must attain a minimum of 85 points out of a total of 100 points. This is the pinnacle for the Edsa Busway and a challenge for the present administration.
Metro Manila has many other congested traffic corridors suitable for a BRT. Commonwealth Avenue, C-5, Quezon Avenue, Sucat Avenue and Zapote-Sucat Avenue are some of them.
The busway system has undergone great improvement over the years around the world.
It was upgraded into a bus rapid transit system in Chile, Latin America, as the Curitiba line. Other lines followed, notably the TransMilenio in Colombia. In Asia, the Guangzhou Line in China and TransJakarta BRT lines are among BRTs whose sections were awarded the gold standard.
The future of a BRT system in Metro Manila is to interconnect all these systems within the BRT standards and provide main lines to feeder lines and other mass transport connectivity for end-of- the-line destinations. Many other facilities such as park and ride and transfer bus stations, where passengers can easily transfer to and from feeder lines will greatly enhance their operation. This is the challenge facing the transportation department. Only with the completion of this system will traffic congestion be controlled or reduced to a tolerable level.
Mobility in Metropolitan Manila has always been a challenge. But with a system of BRTs as a vital part of an efficient public transport system, plus commuter trains, Metro Manila can function adequately and comfortably.
Chair, MAP Traffic, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Eduardo “Eddie” H. Yap
Email : edyap2@gmail.com
