EDITORS DESK
The EDSA Bus Carousel Lane was opened mid-2020, and was intended to be a mass rapid system that would benefit the masses. The two inner-most lanes on most of the 23.8-kilometer road were barricaded and separated from the rest of the traffic to let, primarily, passenger buses to zip through unimpeded, and afford swifter travel for the greater majority.
For all intents and purposes, the EDSA Bus Carousel entitled the less privileged, the masses, to a more comfortable, quicker ride through what is regarded as the country’s most congested major thoroughfare.
It was also intended to be an incentive for car owners to abandon their ride, and, instead, use public buses while traveling on EDSA, thereby, lessening the traffic crunch on the vital road that passes through six of Metro Manila’s 17 local government units, cutting north to south from Caloocan City to Pasay City.
Apart from the passenger buses, only ambulances and properly marked government vehicles were allowed on the EDSA Bus Carousel.
But of late, many have observed that the barriers that were meant to segregate the less from the more privileged, the mere passenger from the vehicle owner, or the many from the few, were being want only violated.
Just because he drove a luxury sports utility vehicle, he thought he could drive through the EDSA Bus Lane.
Just because he was already late to an urgent meeting, he thought he could trample upon the rights of the hundreds of others, who could be late for work, late for an appointment, or late for a date, but were wallowing on the more congested side of EDSA.
Just because he was a hard-working delivery rider, he thought he could swerve to the fast lanes of EDSA when other similarly placed delivery riders were sweating it out, tediously making their way around the demanding bumper-to-bumper traffic just meters to the right.
And just because he held a high position in government, he thought he could give himself the privilege of zipping through EDSA by using the Bus Lane like a red carpet exclusively reserved for him.
There was even a driver, who, probably for lack of a more credible answer, invoked that he was late for a meeting with Jesus Christ when he was asked by a (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority) MMDA traffic enforcer why he had to cross over to the exclusive bus lane.
Indeed, the traffic on EDSA has drawn the worst, most insensitive side to Filipinos using the major Metro Manila traffic artery. It may have also driven some of them mad.
Worse, there were violators, who nearly ran over MMDA traffic enforcers trying to flag them down for their infraction, or errant motorcycle riders who just sped away, and absconded by merely diving back into the thick of the regular EDSA traffic.
That is why it is commendable that the mayors of Metro Manila’s 12 cities and one municipality, MMDA and Land Transportation Office (LTO) have gathered the resolve to draw a firmer, indelible, and forbidding line between those who can and who cannot use the EDSA Bus Carousel.
In the first hours of its implementation on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023, the more determined crackdown – armed with the heftier fines this time – was able to net about 300 violators.
And to set the record straight, the LTFRB has made it clear that only these vehicles or convoys may use the EDSA Bus Way: passenger buses authorized by the LTFRB; on-duty ambulances, fire trucks, and Philippine National Police (PNP) vehicles; service vehicles performing duties on the EDSA Bus Way; and convoys bearing the President, Vice President, Senate President, House Speaker, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
The agency also has put its foot down that there will be rare instances when other vehicles may be allowed to use the EDSA Bus Way.
For instance, not even an emergency medical trip by a private vehicle would be allowed on the thoroughfare. After all, the LTFRB explained none of its enforcers is a medical expert who could determine if the urgency is warranted.
So stringent is the exclusion rule that a recent incident involving drivers of Sen. Bong Revilla resulted in violation tickets being issued his drivers for using the bus way while invoking that the senator was among the passengers in their convoy.
Indeed, LTFRB has drawn a clear line between the privileged, who own private vehicle, or those who can afford taxi, or other transport services, and the greater majority who ride public passenger buses, and who have been empowered to, at least, have a faster, safer, and more worry-free ride on EDSA.
And with a ₱5,000-penalty for a first offense, ranging to as much as ₱30,000 – plus revocation of driver’s license – for a fourth offense, LTFRB is making sure that segregation is followed, no matter how shocking these could be for the latest violators of the EDSA Bus Lane.
Are they too much, too onerous of a fine for just crossing over to a faster lane on EDSA?
Or are they just retribution for feeling entitled to a privilege that is not yours.
Indeed, it is time to put the rightful commuters and motorists in their proper places on EDSA.
(Rocky Nazareno is the News Editor of Manila Bulletin.)