BRT: Breaking road traditions

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a modern mass transport system which can be quickly implemented at a low-to-moderate cost (Nikitas & Karlsson, 2015). In the case of Cebu City, however, the word ‘quick’ is hardly applicable, given the bureaucratic hurdles and political head currents the BRT here faces.

Finally, Package 1 of the BRT project, spanning from the N. Bacalso station to the Capitol along Osmeña Boulevard, has undergone test runs this week. Cebu City Transportation Office chief Raquel Arce, in an interview with reporters last week, said that at least 10 CIBUS units will be used during the dry run.

For the full operation, 17 buses will be allotted to the BRT, which will operate from 6 A.M. to 11 P.M., from Il Corso to IT Park, Arce said. However, since only Package 1 has been completed, the buses will run on BRT-dedicated lanes uninterrupted by traffic only between N. Bacalso and the Capitol.

Still, I’m excited about this development, that finally we will be implementing the BRT, even if only in stages. Yet I know many people are not as excited, or even dislike the BRT, thinking it is a bane to the city’s already-worsening traffic.

As expected, the dry run this week caused heavy congestion along Osmeña Boulevard. Arce anticipated this, telling reporters: “Unya naa pa g’yud dedicated lane, meaning to say, instead nga gigamit na sa motorista ang maong dalan, bisan og walay sakyanan or bisan wala pa ang bus, dili g’yud na magamit because it is a dedicated lane for the BRT.”

This point, she noted, is indeed very challenging. How can traffic authorities appease private motorists and other public utility commuters who see a lane off-limits to them even when no BRT buses are in sight? The buses appear only intermittently, zooming past once in a while. Indeed, to many commuters, the BRT appears to be taking away road space that could have been used by all.

As a 2015 study by Nikitas and Karlsson in the Journal of Public Transportation points out: “BRT, nonetheless, is a very demanding transport option that could change the balance of an entire transport network within a city. This is because BRT would significantly reorient something as limited and precious as road space provision in favor of bus services. This will obviously impact the rest of road traffic in a severe way if a decisive modal shift is not achieved.”

This ‘decisive modal shift’ means the challenge for the Cebu BRT is to move a significant portion of commuters from private vehicles toward BRT buses. To do this, the city must demonstrate that the buses come often, on time, and without long waits. The travel experience should also be seamless for commuters, beginning with efficient ticketing.

Fares must be reasonable compared to other options. The stations already look impressive, but authorities must also ensure they are safe, well-lit, comfortable, and accessible to all, including seniors. Still, it remains to be seen whether all these measures will ‘push’ commuters toward the BRT.

Thus, the real challenge lies in public education if the BRT is to be widely understood and accepted. The fact that many commuters outside the BRT lanes felt greatly inconvenienced during the dry run shows that many people have yet to grasp the importance of the BRT in the city’s transport system. They react only to what they immediately see, not to real longitudinal data.

And I believe that such data will show that the BRT is not just an alternative but the better choice. Traffic volume in the city is no longer sustainable and has reached crisis proportions. LTO-7 data, as reported by CDN Digital, show that the number of registered cars in Cebu City alone has surged by about 22% since 2013. In 2022, LTO-7 recorded over a million registered motor vehicles. From January to November 2023, Cebu City accounted for 42,000 new vehicles added to the more than one million already on the road.

That means we can no longer afford to let private vehicles use our roads as if they had the same claim as mass transport, which carries far more people. And as a car commuter, I will do my part. On roads with BRT lanes, I will avoid those routes and let the BRT do its work. If I need to be anywhere in or near those areas, I’ll take the BRT myself. That will save me not just gas money but, more importantly, precious time.