Monday, October 16, 2006 Mandaue wants to test bus transit
THE Mandaue City Government is interested in establishing a bus rapid transit (BRT) in the city, with the assistance of business and civic organizations.
The City Council passed a resolution expressing the City’s intent to pursue the project, after Mayor Thadeo Ouano asked the body to do so through a letter.
The City has ventured into preliminary talks with the Partnership with Clean Air, Clean Air Initiatives-Asia, Asian Development Bank and the US Agency for International Development through the Energy and Clean Air Project (Ecap).
The concept was also presented to the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry members last August.
The BRT has been adopted in some American, Latin American and Asian countries. It involves segregated bus lanes with stations along the routes. The bus lanes are exclusively for the BRT units’ use.
It also features pre-board fare collection and fare verification, restricted operator access, and “clean bus” technologies.
The City need not alter roads because the system can be implemented in as little as three-meter-wide streets.
As an advantage over railways, it can be constructed in 12 to 18 months and costs less.
A railway transit, on the other hand, could take three to 30 years to complete and could cost $40-$220 million per kilometer.
In 2001, a firm tasked to make a comprehensive study on Mandaue City’s traffic system design reported that the roads would reach or go beyond their congestion levels by 2005.
The study further recommended the creation of at least five new road links from 2005 to 2010.
The BRT system is also being planned for Metro Manila. (AAG)
