Carpool on EDSA bus lane? DOTr shoots down MMDA pitch

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‘Any transfer to open this lane to non-public autos, even beneath the guise of carpooling, will inevitably decelerate bus operations and defeat the very goal for which the busway was created,’ says Transportation Secretary Banoy Lopez

Metro Manila’s visitors simply retains getting worse, rating 14th among the many worst on the earth within the 2025 TomTom Visitors Index.

Newly-installed Metropolitan Manila Growth Authority (MMDA) Common Supervisor Nicolas Torre’s suggestion to deal with this? Open the EDSA busway to different high-occupancy autos.

“One of many issues we’re pondering of doing — however this isn’t but authorised — is placing on the drawing desk the thought of permitting high-occupancy autos with 10 or extra individuals to make use of the busway,” Torre stated in an interview on One Information.

Based on him, this might encourage Filipinos to carpool and ease congestion.

And this isn’t the primary time the thought has surfaced.

MMDA chairman Don Artes as soon as floated an identical plan: flip the busway right into a high-occupancy car lane for automobiles with three to 4 passengers.

Artes’ answer to enforcement? AI-powered cameras to rely passengers. Tinted home windows? Roll them down for visibility.

The Division of Transportation (DOTr), nonetheless, is just not shopping for Torre’s suggestion.

“The busway was designed primarily to maneuver extra individuals — no more automobiles — by offering quick and uninterrupted service to buses carrying as much as 300,000 passengers each day,” the DOTr stated in a press release on Thursday, January 29.

“Any transfer to open this lane to non-public autos, even beneath the guise of carpooling, will inevitably decelerate bus operations and defeat the very goal for which the busway was created,” DOTr Secretary Banoy Lopez stated.

Whereas the DOTr appreciates Torre’s suggestion, it stated the President’s route is that “authorities transport coverage have to be commuter-focused and pro-mass transit, not car-centric.”

“Kaisa namin ang mga commuters sa pagpapatotoo na mabisang programa ang EDSA Busway para sa mas nakararami. Sapat na dahilan ito para manatiling eksklusibo ang EDSA Busway para lamang sa mga bus at mga komyuter,” Lopez stated.

(We stand with commuters in affirming that the EDSA Busway is an efficient program that advantages the higher majority. That is cause sufficient for the EDSA Busway to stay unique to buses and commuters.)

This isn’t the primary time for the MMDA and DOTr to be divided on sure insurance policies. Nearly a yr in the past, the MMDA and Inside Secretary Jonvic Remulla prompt scrapping the EDSA bus carousel, but it surely was additionally rejected by the DOTr.

Identical businesses. Identical freeway. Identical disagreement.

So, whereas Metro Manila’s visitors retains getting worse, its transport businesses appear caught in their very own jam — arguing over lanes, insurance policies, and priorities — driving in several instructions.