Provincial bus ban on EDSA starts today

MANILA, Philippines — Provincial buses will no longer be allowed on certain portions of EDSA during rush hours starting today.

Bong Nebrija, supervising operations officer of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), said southbound provincial buses will end their route in Cubao, Quezon City while northbound provincial buses will also be allowed up to Pasay City.

Under the new traffic scheme, provincial buses are not allowed between Magallanes in Makati City to Cubao in Quezon City from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

The affected buses are exempted from the MMDA’s number coding scheme.

 Nebrija said the bus ban is expected to reduce the number of buses going through EDSA by 25 percent or around 2,000 buses.

Driver-only cars banned as well

In another development, MMDA general manager Jojo Garcia said yesterday they will also start the dry run today of the ban on driver-only vehicles through the agency’s no-contact apprehension.

 Garcia said they will not apprehend private motorists but only monitor the number of violators.

In an advisory published on Monday, the MMDA said the ban will be fully implemented on Aug. 23. 

Violators will be fined P1,000.

Garcia said they will assess whether on not to push through with the project based on the results of the dry run.

Sen. Grace Poe appealed to the MMDA anew yesterday to reconsider the ban since 70 percent of around 360,000 vehicles that go through EDSA daily are driver-only. – Marvin Sy