Friday, September 05, 2008 DOTC gives P16M for studies on bus transit system; Tomas rallies 4 mayors By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter With Rene H. Martel
PLANNING activities for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system for Metro Cebu will start in November, after the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) verbally committed to provide the P16 million needed for it.
The Cebu City Government, though, will still have to look for the funds needed for the feasibility studies for the BRT system, which it hopes to get from foreign funding agencies.
Even before the planning stage can start, DOTC and city officials already anticipate opposition from some sectors and some political, legal and red tape problems.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña recently met and convinced his counterparts from four neighboring local government units (LGUs) to join consultations on the proposed BRT system, instead of supporting the creation of a traffic authority.
There is a pending bill authored by Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City, north) and co-authored by Reps. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south), Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu, 6th) and Eduardo Gullas (Cebu, 1st) that seeks to create a Metro Cebu Traffic Authority.
Osmeña earlier said he might even bring the mayors of Mandaue City, Lapu-Lapu City, Cordova and Consolacion to Curitiba, Brazil so they can see for themselves how the BRT works.
Planning and feasibility studies will take 10 to 12 months to complete. It will take 18 to 24 months to set up the entire system, but Osmeña said he is bent on getting it started before his term ends in 2010.
Osmeña said he expects jeepney and taxi drivers to oppose the project, as it will affect their livelihood. Jeepneys will not be allowed to enter routes where there is a BRT line if the project is implemented.
Will
In a consultation seminar on the BRT system for Metro Cebu yesterday, Cebu City and DOTC officials admitted that an LGU can implement the project only if it has the political will to cut through red tape and overcome resistance from some sectors.
“I have only two years left so I’m going to make a big kick out of this already. I don’t care if they will no longer come to me after that,” he said during the forum, referring to the public utility vehicles (PUV) drivers who are expected to oppose the plan.
“I already proposed this in 1996 but there was so much resistance from jeepney drivers. But now we have to decide, is Cebu City going to be designed to provide
livelihood to jeepney drivers only? Are we going to do something for the good of the whole city or for the good of only a few people?” he said yesterday.
City Planning and Development Coordinator Nigel Paul Villarete assured that the transport sector, the drivers’ groups and other sectors will also be consulted in the coming weeks.
In the same forum, Dr. Ildefonso Patdu, DOTC planning and special projects director, said their agency will provide the P16 million needed for the planning activities, which the University of the Philippines’ National Center for Transportation Studies (UP-NCTS) will undertake.
Like trains
As explained by experts yesterday, the BRT is a public transport system similar to a light rail transit. But instead of train coaches, buses are used, and a designated lane for buses instead of rail tracks.
The City is planning to use the BRT system in Curitiba, Brazil as a model for the system to be used in Metro Cebu.
Other efficient models are those in Jakarta in Indonesia, Brisbane in Brazil and Bogota in Colombia.
Based on the DOTC’s computations for the proposed BRT in Metro Manila, the system will cost $15 million per kilometer to set up.
Osmeña said yesterday that the number of kilometers of the initial operations in Cebu City and the estimated cost of the project will be determined during the feasibility study.
It is also at this point when they can determine to what extent the bus and jeepney drivers will be affected.
“There is a political problem here obviously. One way to handle it is to force the issue on having one route only for the BRT and in that route, there will be no jeepneys allowed so the people will be forced to use the buses. And there is also the problem on bureaucracy with other government agencies. We just need to have the political will to do it,” the mayor said.
Planning
Dr. Noriel Tiglao of the UP-NCTS explained that the planning alone will take six months, and will entail data-gathering and transport and traffic surveys.
Expenses for the planning activities, which will cover the entire Metro Cebu area with focus on the central business district, will be charged to DOTC’s Special Vehicle Pollution Control Fund.
The planning output, which will be called the Metro Cebu Public Transport Strategic Plan, will be used in the feasibility study, which will take four to six months.
Of his meeting with the other mayors, Osmeña said he warned them against the passage of the Metro Cebu Traffic Authority bill, which he said is flawed and would create “a major breakdown” in local traffic management.
What he will agree to, he said, is the creation of a management body that will handle a mass transport system, such as the BRT, in Metro Cebu.
Early this year, World Bank traffic experts visited Cebu City to study the possibility of implementing a BRT system in the Banilad-Talamban area.
