Goodbye to EDSA traffic? Metro Manila Council bans provincial buses from EDSA

Just over two weeks after the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) banned UV Express shuttles from traversing EDSA, another set of PUVs have just been banned from using it.

 

THIS MAY SOON BE a thing of the past once the MMC resolution takes effect. Photo by Ramon FVelasquez, grabbed from Wikimedia Commons.

 

In a report from the Manila Bulletin, the Metro Manila Council (MMC) approved a resolution last August 12 banning provincial buses from using EDSA.

Provincial bus terminals will likewise be removed from the major thoroughfare in an effort to decongest the worsening traffic the National Capital Region (NCR) faces every day.

The move is in line with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s directive during his State of the Nation Address to have all bus terminals along EDSA “be removed and referred to strategic areas outside of the metropolis with the end of decongesting said major thoroughfare.”

This is seen as the start of a move that has been in the works for the past 3 years. In 2013, then-President Benigno S. Aquino III signed Administrative Order No. 40, which looked to establish Integrated Transport Terminals (ITTs) in key areas within NCR.

Each ITT was supposed to be managed by different government agencies, but has been largely sidelined because of delays and resistance from stakeholders, i.e. the bus companies and commuters that would be affected.

 

Source: Manila Bulletin, Philstar.com, Rappler