BRT is a ‘waste of money’

By Atty. Jerome G. Neri
The Scrutineer

THE National Economic Development Authority has approved the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit System project for Cebu. This is a huge project with the goal of making public transportation more efficient and decongesting our roads from traffic.

The Cebu Bus Rapid Transit System is 11 kilometers of segregated busways from Bulacao to Ayala Mall along Cebu South Road, N. Bacalsco Ave, Osmeña Blvd. and N. Escario St., and a further six kilometers of bus priority roads at junctions will allow BRT buses to reach Talamban along Gov. M Cuenco Ave.

Segregated bus lanes will run down the middle of the road. Stations will also be located in the middle of the road and will be accessed by footbridges or pedestrian crossings. Thirty-three stations have been proposed including terminals at Ayala Shopping Mall, Talamban and Bulacao. A modified jeepney network is expected to operate feeder and complementary services to the BRT route. Space will be made at BRT stations for interchanges with jeepney routes.

This project is a complete waste of money. It will not work in the planned route. The illusions of the proponents that the private car owners will switch to public transportation as long as public transportation is efficient is nothing but a fairytale. It seems to me that the proponents of this plan are on some heavy mind altering substances that they are so far removed from reality.

If we look at the Bus Rapid Transit Systems in other countries, they are in the middle of very wide roads, wider than the SRP road. The plan to construct lanes in the middle of N. Bacalso Ave., Osmeña Blvd., Escario St. and Gov. Cuenco Ave. for a Bus Rapid Transit System is just mind-blowingly absurd, as these streets are already very congested and narrow.

I also do not think that the government will expropriate all the properties and buildings on both sides of these streets as it would just cost too much. Look at those streets: there is just no space. Of course the proponents will tell you to take the bus and don’t bring a car so traffic will be avoided.

Well, 99 percent of the people do not live along the route of the Bus Rapid Transit System, so those with cars who, in theory, could take the bus will need to drive their cars to the bus station, but looking at the plan, the bus station is in the middle of the road have no provisions for parking. So why would someone with a car take the bus?
Then, the proponents say they will modify the jeepney routes where it can be a feeder system to the buses. What? This new plan still wants to retain the jeepneys as part of our public transportation system? Have the planners forgotten that we are already in the 21st century and we should work on phasing out these jeepneys in lieu of more modern, efficient, safe and non-polluting modes of public transportation?

What Cebu needs is an efficient highway system that links the north, south and west to Metro Cebu. What the National Government calls National Highways here in the Province of Cebu are just two to four-lane roads that are in substance just municipal roads, nothing like the NLEX or SLEX in the capital. Luzon already has numerous new highways apart from the aforementioned such as the SCTEX, STAR Tollway, CAVITEX and they just keep on building new ones. As for the Visayas there is none. Cebu badly needs one and the project we get is this Bus Rapid Transit System that I am certain will make Cebu worse than what it is now. It is a conseulo de bobo project.

Yes, we do need an efficient public transportation system, but given the available space we have right now, this public transportation system must be either above ground or underground. An above ground Bus Rapid Transportation System would work. The only drawback being that it would still use fossil fuel.

So much money has already been stolen from us the taxpayers. Let us not let this incompetent government build a street level public transportation system that will just increase congestion.