The Wheels On The Bus

The talk now in Cebu is that the BRT, or Bus Rapid Transit, is finally going to be implemented. Frankly, I'm surprised. The tendency in the Philippines is that projects and undertakings lose steam once their principal proponents are out of power. The last time there was this much talk of the BRT, I was still a Political Science undergraduate and Tomas Osmena, the main proponent, was still the mayor.

Speaking of undergraduate years, I attended a forum back then too about the BRT. My memory is a little hazy but I was able to learn much about the system. The Bus Rapid Transit was first implemented in Brazil; successfully, I was told. The system is basically a hybrid. To put it simply, it works in the same principle as a typical light rail system or metro but uses the existing road network instead of building a whole new rail line from scratch. 

How it works is that a dedicated lane is made on the roads, which only the buses may use. Stations are spread out in key locations. Fares are collected in the stations before boarding to maximize efficiency. The buses would travel non-stop from station to station unimpeded by traffic since it has its own special lane. They would be fast too since no other vehicle is in their way. The goal is to be able to move a large volume of people quickly from point A to point B but within a road network instead of a rail line.

Brazil's BRT

 For example, the route is from the Capitol Building to Fuente Osmena to Mango Avenue all the way to SM Mall. If traffic isn't so bad, it takes thirty minutes by car. If traffic is terrible, like around the time the students from schools are dismissed, it would take forty-five to an hour. Now, imagine if there was a BRT station by the Capitol and one in SM. I board the bus by Capitol and if it travels along the route completely free from traffic and at high speed, I could reach SM in less than half an hour.

The most important thing about the BRT is that it bypasses traffic completely and the buses move fast using its own dedicated lane. If no such lane exists and the buses were to be snagged in traffic like a regular vehicle, then the purpose is defeated. It's just a regular bus system if that happens. The theory in having a BRT system is that it would alleviate the congestion from the regular road network. Using my example, suppose twelve people were to travel from the Capitol to SM. Let's say they all own cars. Without the BRT, there would be twelve cars on the road making life miserable for everyone. With the BRT, the twelve people would, in theory, use the BRT system instead; thereby alleviating the regular road network with twelve less cars on the road.

There are other advantages as well. Building a light rail line, while being the best option in my opinion, is very costly; not to mention the difficulty in carving out the space for it to work. The costs of compensating property owners will be very high and the problem is compounded by the tendency of compensation proceedings in courts to drag on for decades. Think of the BRT as a system within a system.

Now, it wouldn't be fair to go on and on about the wonders of the BRT system without mentioning its potential flaws. No system is perfect after all and I was a cynical asshole back then who enjoyed trying to find as much flaws in things as possible. Today, I'm not as cynical but I digress.

Firstly, the existing road network in Cebu is small. The roads here date back to the fifties. There are major thoroughfares sure, but if we want the BRT to be really comprehensive, we would need wider roads stretching all over the city. As it is now, I think that taking a lane from our already stressed road system would cause a lot of traffic. Traffic is bad enough with just three lanes on each side of Osmena Boulevard, but can you imagine if we reduced it to two on each side just so we can have an exclusive lane for the BRT? 

You might say that people will use the BRT instead, so the regular road network won't have so much traffic, but I must point out that the bus cannot stop anywhere but on stations. It would really depend on how far the BRT system reaches. The stations will have to be placed on locations people most travel to. But what if the roads on such places are too small for the BRT to be implemented? The roads downtown are just a tangle of two lane roads. So we make them one lane roads now?

Jakarta's BRT

Which brings me to my second point; to be truly effective, we have to widen our roads. That won't be cheap. It may be cheaper than a rail line but it's still going to take a bite out of the budget. If they dare to implement the BRT without widening the roads then it's going to be a huge mistake. Also, did I mention the BRT lane is supposed to be in the middle of the avenue? Maybe they can get away with simply demolishing the middle avenue barriers but I'm not sure if that's enough space.

Thirdly, it requires discipline from regular motorists which, if you've ever tried driving or commuting in the Philippines, does not actually exist. Imagine how tempting it would be to a typical ignorant motorist, to see an "empty" lane that's supposedly reserved for the buses. So he goes for it and everyone else get's pissed off that the moron is getting a free lane all to himself. So everyone ends up using the BRT lane. If you think I'm just speculating then you're correct but anyone who's ever lived in the Philippines can see this nightmare coming true before their very eyes already. I suppose they could build concrete dividers to prevent this from happening, but that's going to use even more space that we don't have.

The BRT system could work. However, the cynic in me says that we'll find an exciting and creative way to completely fuck this up somehow. But I must be optimistic. Cebu cannot allow itself to end up like the hot mess that is Metro Manila.

There's still hope.