EDSA Bus Carousel a bane for abusive motorists
With a stricter policy in place, the exclusive EDSA Bus Carousel lane has apparently become a jinx for motorists taking advantage of fewer vehicles using it.
It has also cost an official of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority or MMDA his post as EDSA’s traffic czar.
The city buses in the Bus Carousel started transporting passengers along EDSA between Monumento and the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange in June 2020 at the height of the pandemic. The buses initially gave free rides but later on charged bus fares from passengers.
Amid complaints from passengers about lack of accessibility to elevators and walkways as well as from bus groups claiming they were deprived of income, the government repeatedly vowed to improve the EDSA Bus Carousel, set up along EDSA’s innermost lanes.
Aside from city buses, only ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles and government service vehicles for the exclusive lane are allowed to traverse there, according to directives from the MMDA and the Department of Transportation.
The DOTr recently released a modified list of authorized vehicles to include those from the convoys of the President,
Vice President, Senate President, House Speaker and Chief Justice.
Despite these policies, many motorists with unauthorized vehicles – both private and from the government – attempted to use the exclusive lane to escape congestion along EDSA.
As of October this year, the MMDA recorded a 11,027 unauthorized motorists who used the EDSA Bus Carousel.
In mid-November, the MMDA issued Regulation No. 23-002, imposing a P5,000 fine for first-time violators of the EDSA Bus Carousel policy. The previous policy set the fine at P1,000.
A second offense meant a P10,000 fine, suspension of the driver’s license for a month and a seminar on road safety.
Motorists would be fined P20,000 and have their license suspended for a year for a third offense while a fourth offense gets a P30,000 fine and possible revocation of their license.
Erring motorists who attempt to escape after being flagged down along the EDSA Bus Carousel will be imposed fines and penalties under the third offense.
MMDA traffic enforcers issued violation tickets to 1,375 motorists – 833 riding motorcycles and 542 driving fourwheeled vehicles – from Nov. 13, the first day of the new regulation, until Nov. 20.
Among the violators were two drivers who mentioned the name of Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. to escape apprehension. The MMDA’s former Task Force Special Operations chief, Edison Nebrija, let them go out of “courtesy.”
He apologized to Revilla – who warned that the MMDA’s proposed budget for 2024 would not be approved – for mentioning the senator’s name in media interviews.
However, the MMDA imposed a onemonth preventive suspension on Nebrija pending an investigation of the incident.
The MMDA later found that the drivers involved in the incident were from Cavite, Revilla’s home province, and were transporting a student running late for class.
Nebrija, in a recent Facebook post, said he has been reassigned to the MMDA’s Traffic Education Center.