Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

[RonnieR]

Originally Posted by greenshields

let's just say i'm very involved in the transport sector =)

Good to hear that....I'm so eager to see BRT in metropolis with the new buses. When is the target date for the initial run?

[bustero]

Originally Posted by greenshields

let's just say i'm very involved in the transport sector =)

figured that much , good luck to you!

[greenshields]

Well, given that both the DOTC and the MMDA are pushing for a BRT line before PGMA steps down (will she?) then it would be optimistic to say that we might have something like a groundbreaking next year. Yun lang baka medyo madaliin so the infra might not be exactly like what we know as BRT in Bogota or Jakarta. Incidentally, the MMDA Chair still insists that his bus scheme along EDSA is a BRT.

[flymordecai]

Originally Posted by greenshields

Well, given that both the DOTC and the MMDA are pushing for a BRT line before PGMA steps down (will she?) then it would be optimistic to say that we might have something like a groundbreaking next year. Yun lang baka medyo madaliin so the infra might not be exactly like what we know as BRT in Bogota or Jakarta. Incidentally, the MMDA Chair still insists that his bus scheme along EDSA is a BRT.

Aw, I hope they don't rush this just to get it done. I'd rather not have them build a poorly setup BRT system compared to Bogota/Jakarta, and I would definitely not like it to be like the EDSA "BRT".

[papi_chulo]

This is a Great news!!! finally jeepneys and ugly busses along with tricycles, pedicabs will be gone soon...

[RonnieR]

Originally Posted by greenshields

Incidentally, the MMDA Chair still insists that his bus scheme along EDSA is a BRT.

BRT in EDSA? BF is out of his senses. Sorry to those BF fanatics here.

The current scheme along EDSA is far from the ideal BRT system. I don't have to explain it further but BF should know this. He has gone to South America and I presumed he has been to Jakarta, and see the difference. Their buses alone are newer, with specific lane....etc. etc.

[greenshields]

Sorry to say but the BRT plans don't have a component that includes rationalization of jeepneys and tricycles. The government through the DOTC and its LTFRB aren't moving towards rationalization. Sad to say but people within these organizations are the ones granting permits or franchises that have led to more jeepneys where they aren't supposed to be. The problem with gov't is that it is still reactive kaya palaging napag-iiwanan.

[spearhead]

It doesn't say much about closing or aborting any LRT line projects nor any changes, and the date was reported last June 24, 2008. So something new must be coming soon.

Originally Posted by spearhead

Bus Rapid Transit Now Reaches Asia and Pacific Rim
June 24, 2008
http://www.apta.com/services/intnatl...s/busparim.cfm


Manila, Philippines--An all-Philippine private consortium has joined forces with some government support to put together a $91 million busway system in metropolitan Manila, which will become operational early next year.

The Philtrak project will operate along the C-5 corridor in metropolitan Manila and is expected to carry some 180,000 people daily. It is seen as a major step in relieving the capital's endemic traffic congestion.

An integral part of the government's plan to relieve the country's urban transport problems, Philtrak will get underway using 110 brand new, high-capacity, low floor, articulated Volvo buses, supported by an equal number of shuttle buses. The vehicles will carry passengers to stops along the 22-mile C-5 Bus Rapid Transit corridor that starts at the Taguig Terminal in metropolitan Manila.

The project is making maximum use of local components and assembly processes. Del Monte Motor Works has made the bus bodies; Micrologic Systems will install the intelligent ticketing system including contactless farecards; and Versatech will work on traffic engineering problems.

The coming Manila BRT is envisioned as a total departure from the undisciplined, polluting, and accident-prone vehicles that have characterized urban transport in Manila and the nation's other major cities. The Volvo engines have been tested to have the lowest emissions in their class, and the stations along the environmentally friendly BRT will be equipped with efficient garbage collection and recycling systems. This is in line with Philtrak's announced policy of running a business whose employees take care of their surroundings.

To emphasize the "green" character of the new transit system, its initial 450 employees will be designated as "earth carers" and its drivers as "earth pilots." The vehicles will be equipped with Global Positioning System sensors and controlled from a command center by a state-of-the-art bus location system. More than a third of the employees, 162, will be recruited from among persons with disabilities, who will be trained in an intensive company-run program.

According to a Philtrak announcement, the Manila BRT is intended to move mass transit into a higher and more disciplined, self-regulated level of operations: "Our integrated bus operation seeks to provide the public with a safe and dependable mass transit system that does not overspeed, overtake, illegally load and unload, swerve, block, pollute or cause unnecessary accidents or traffic jams."

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, is in the midst of planning a busway project to relieve pressure on the North Shore corridor, which is packed with 165,000 vehicles each workday.

In Japan, the Toyota Motor Corporation has just started trial runs for its "intelligent multi-mode transit system" (IMTS), which builds on but moves beyond the Curitiba, Brazil, busway model, on its one-mile Shizuoka test track. IMTS will couple up to six environmentally friendly, low floor Shino Yamada buses together for service along dedicated corridor segments. The buses are fueled by liquefied natural gas and can be uncoupled quickly to run on regular roads and to adjust to changes in demand.

IMTS uses the latest in Intelligent Transportation Systems technologies, such as lane maintenance by detection of magnetic nails and detection of forward obstructions, including fixed distance maintenance between "bus trains," by extreme high frequency radar.

The low floor "stepless" buses will operate with a newly developed, low-emission compressed natural gas engine. The vehicles themselves are based on currently mass-produced bus models and can be serviced and maintained at regular bus service stations, eliminating the need for construction of specialized maintenance facilities.

As the system's operation requires neither rails nor electric power lines, construction and maintenance costs are much lower than conventional railway-based or other new transport systems.

Potential uses of IMTS include connecting airports, intermodal terminals, and resort areas with neighboring cities or residential neighborhoods affected by major fluctuations in demand, along with providing medium-volume transportation between provincial cities.

The system can handle up to about 20,000 passengers an hour per direction.

[greenshields]

Here's something from the Sun Star in Cebu:

Sunday, June 29, 2008
Proposed transit system may get a boost: Villarete

THE Nagkahiusang Drayber sa Sugbo’s (Nadsu) strike tomorrow will only serve to discredit the reliability of the current transport system and make the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) more appealing to the public, a Cebu City Government urban planner said yesterday.

Engineer Nigel Paul Villarete, City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) chief, said a transport strike will inconvenience the most the “poor and the masses who could not afford to buy their own cars.”

With majority of the people taking the brunt of the protest action, they will naturally long for a better way to reach their workplaces and then return to their homes.

“Unwittingly, this will serve as an advocacy for the planned BRT, and will convince more and more people that they deserve a change from an oppressive system—where their daily transportation to work and home is not that dependable,” he said.

Villarete said the ever-present possibility of public utility jeepney (PUJ) drivers keeping off the streets and paralyzing the daily lives of students, workers and other commuters will spur the need for another system.

“They (drivers) may have their own reasons, (and) these reasons may indeed have valid points, but whatever they may be and no matter how valid a reason they may raise, the fact remains that an entire city will be held hostage, and that the public will be inconvenienced,” he said.

The disruption, he said, will only serve to convince the public to adopt a “more dependable, more reliable, more convenient, faster and enjoyable system.”

Early this year, World Bank traffic experts visited Cebu City to study the possibility of implementing a BRT system in the Banilad-Talamban area.

After that “initial exposure,” the experts were scheduled to return for the study, surveys and consultations.

According to a USAID study, the BRT was proven effective in Curitiba, Brazil and in Quito, Ecuador. At least 15 Asian cities have adopted the system.

It works like the train system, but uses buses instead of train coaches and bus lanes instead of train tracks. It is also cheaper to operate.

The buses are stairless and passengers pay at the specially designed bus stops.

As in Curitiba, there will be lanes that will be dedicated solely for the buses. The Curitiba BRT uses up to five bi-articulate buses connected by bolts.

The system, Villarete said, “will not be affected by any increase in fuel costs and will continue to run regardless of the world oil price levels.”

“When we shift to the BRT, transport strikes will be a thing of the past; or at least, they will be just news we hear on the radio or watch in our televisions as they continue to haunt Manila and the rest of the country,” he said. (RHM)

[Eriq]

Originally Posted by greenshields

Here's something from the Sun Star in Cebu:

“When we shift to the BRT, transport strikes will be a thing of the past; or at least, they will be just news we hear on the radio or watch in our televisions as they continue to haunt Manila and the rest of the country,” he said. (RHM)

LOL, Just can't pass up the opportunity to dig, huh?

[RonnieR]

True, with BRT system, the riding public will no longer be held hostage by these jeepney drivers. I hope Cebu can implement this one. It will surely benefit the people there and would surely enhance Cebu's image.

[bustero]

I think the most likely candidate for a TRUE BRT in the country would be the Ayala pushed Makati Taguig Line. I don't know when their feasibility will be done (should come out soon if it's not out already), but it will be then we will know if these guys will push through with this. THis is already at full fledged feasibility stage unlike any in the country. And there is massive traffic that can be anticipated specially with the weakness of the FORT area in getting accessed by non Automobile riders.

I think that Philtrak article is testing waters to float the idea of a such a line. I would push for it if I were them and it's possible habang maaga pa!

[greenshields]

Got this article from the Bus Lines thread (originally taken from Business World):

City eyes bus-only public transport system
07/08/2008 | 03:25 AM
Business World


DAVAO CITY, Philippines - A bus-based transport system — and doing away with passenger jeepneys — was proposed to the city government.

The local government can maximize the use of buses by making it expensive for car owners to use their vehicles in the downtown area, professor Roberto P. Alabado III of the School of Management of the University of Mindanao, said during a lecture forum on the transport sector and climate change.

He said local officials can duplicate the scheme adopted by Curitiba City in Brazil — assigning roads for buses to ensure exact time of departure and arrival as well as prevent gridlock. Curitiba City has about 1,100 buses which make 12,500 trips daily and serving 1.3 million passengers.

"With one bus, you can [service passengers equivalent to] four or five jeepneys and even six if the passengers are standing," Mr. Alabado said.

To discourage car ownership, Mr. Alabado said local officials can impose higher road user’s tax, parking tax, or the area licensing share practiced in Singapore, which charges toll fees for entry into urban centers.

He said, the city collects P5 parking fee for a whole day, but if an ordinance will impose P5 for every three hours, this will discourage drivers from loitering at urban centers and cause traffic.

The professor suggested a policy shift to adopt a preference for high-capacity mass transportation system and encourage car pooling for businesses and schools.

As of end-December 2007, Davao City had 125,000 private and public motor vehicles registered with the Land Transportation Office in the Davao region.

Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte has signed Executive Order 21 that created a technical working group to draft an ordinance, undertake on-site inspections, and conduct a feasibility study on designating bicycle lanes.

Local officials have talked with representatives of the Global Environment Facility of the World Bank, which helped Marikina City on its bike lanes, to also provide Davao City with the same assistance. — Joel B. Escovilla. BusinessWorld

[LordCarnal]

P5 pesos for the whole day? Even if parking fee is P5 for three hours it will not discourage private car owners..

Hehehe..

Here in Cebu, pay parking as per city ordinance in city government pay parking areas such as near the sidewalks is P15 per hour or a fraction thereof...

There are private pay parking areas though that offer between P10 to P20 per entry irregardless of how many hours you're going to park...

But parking at the sidewalks especially near the establishment where you're going to is more comfortable

[Colonel Burger]

wow.... while in melbourne, we pay $10.00-$20.00 for parking

[IndioBravo]

POSTSCRIPT By Federico D. Pascual Jr.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
JEEPNEYS FOREVER?: On transportation and related issues, the government should adopt a long-range policy on such a question as: Do we want to keep jeepneys, as we know them now, as a mass mode of transportation in Metro Manila?

It seems that in its confused state, the Arroyo administration is taking the line of least resistance by assuming that jeepneys will be around for at least one more generation, or 25 years.

The government should muster the political will to phase out these relics of World War II instead of falling hostage to their bluff and bluster. Jeepneys should be replaced with vehicles that will fill the modern needs of urban Filipinos.

However progressive we become, if jeepneys abound in the nation’s capital, the country will never be able to project a favorable image and move up from the cellar of comparative advantage.

[habagatcentral1]

They did managed to changed from Tramvias to Jeepneys, so why not from jeepneys to BRTs?

How about high-density routes such as Dasmarinas-EDSA. Although it may be struggling also with the other bus companies on the route, pwera na lang if the fare will be partially subsidized by the government, then the people will go BRT instead of the usual bus companies.

[greenshields]

There was no transition from tranvias to jeepneys because the tranvias were destroyed in the war. We had small buses then but similar to what happened to the FX in the 1990's the jeepneys just happened and it became an industry partly due to its essentially door-to-door service and partly due to the jeep being something like an icon.

The government had the chance in the late 1970's and early 1980's when the then Marcos admin was given recommendations for a phaseout along LRT-1. At the time, the conclusion was that the time was ripe because the jeepney groups still didn't have the clout they have today. It never happened under a Martial Law regime. Ano pa kaya ngayon when we have a confused government that wants to appease this already influential sector?

[IndioBravo]

We are literally hostaged by the Jeepney assoc.GMA's govt. is scared of them.

[habagatcentral1]

I thought Marcos promoted the use of bus mass transit during martial law and his years. I remember those blue buses with a heart logo "Love Bus, Save Gas" Metro Manila Bus.