Bus Ban

It’s not a secret that I live in Cavite and work in Pasay.  I already told you the story of my daily bus journey.  So, what’s my take on the new traffic rule implemented by MMDA and current Manila leaders?  That all provincial buses are banned from entering Manila if they don’t have a terminal in the city.  A common terminal is in place at Coastal Mall at Paranaque.

This was implemented mid this week, and lucky enough I was not affected yet.  But 2 Mondays ago, the bus I rode to work, pre-implemented this themselves and told me that they will only drop off passengers on the following areas: Coastal, Lawton, and their Terminal.

1 – this will mean additional fare.  Riding the bus from my area at Cavite I pay only Php48.  With the new rule, it means I will pay for Php41 from cavite to coastal mall, and additional Php15 from Coastal Mall to my workplace.

2 – will this scheme end Manila’s traffic?  I don’t think so.  With no provincial buses traveling to Manila, we need additional UV Express, which can only overload 10 people.  Given the ratio of passenger that the bus can carry vs the ratio of UV Express passenger, I think we would need a lot of UV Express.  And this will cause traffic.

3 -  additional travel time.  Vice Mayor Isko Moreno suggested we wake up 30mins earlier to give adjustment on our travel time.  This is fine – as long as it’s just 30mins.  With a lot of people fighting over those 10 slots in the UV Express, you need to have a fit form to have a place.  And mind you, there are no gentlemen nowadays when it comes to this stuff. 

4 – energy consuming.  There is no wonder that cutting trip normally consumes a lot of energy. 

Provincial busses have their own “spy” or people who tip them on where the traffic enforcers are.  The route they follow currently is from Cavite to Coastal to Vito Cruz turning to Mabini to Harrison then back to CCP-Bangko Sentral.  Well, lucky me, I still enjoy the straight journey.  But, for how long?

Well, per LTFRB what the local government of Manila did was illegal because as long as the bus has its franchise, it should be allowed to go there.  In defense of the new rule, Mayor Erap said, he was not banning all buses.  Only those colorum ones are banned and those with franchise were regulated. And this will take effect for as long as he is Mayor…

Mahaba habang pagtitiis ito….

Happy Friday!