THE Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which is being pushed by the Cebu City Government, was included in the discussion during the 2nd Biannual Research Forum at Fr. Thedore Buttenbruch Hall of the University of San Carlos (USC) yesterday.
Lynn Gloria A. Madrona, of the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJR) Department of Civil Engineering, said the 302-hectare South Road Properties (SRP) has been waiting for development for more than 10 years and once developed, BRT is needed.
In the SRP transportation planning, BRT has been discussed extensively in their study. With this kind of system, the environment will be sustained for the future generation, and the best for this system to be demonstrated is in SRP, Madrona said.
Earlier, Guiling A. Mamondiong, undersecretary for railways of the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), said his agency is evaluating the BRT study which will compliment the planned Light Rail Transit-Mono Rail Transit (LRT-MRT) projects.
Dalaguete to Sogod
The LRT project will traverse the cities of Mandaue, Cebu and Talisay. The MRT, on the other hand, will be from Talisay City to Dalaguete town in Southern Cebu and from Mandaue City to Sogod town in the north.
However, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña opposed the LRT-MRT because for him, the BRT works better for Metro Cebu.
In the study, Madrona said, the BRT has to pass at the area where most of the development in the SRP will be made.
She said that with the use of transportation planning processes, this study aims to forecast the need for transportation inside SRP using density scenarios. A dimensioning tool was prepared in order to estimate the transport demand of person-trips coming in and going out of SRP.
She said that using the environment as a priority criterion in the planning process, this study came up with a conceptual transportation plan for SRP.
In order to provide sustainable development, clean transportation systems and technologies have been chosen for this endeavor. Thus, the BRT has been discussed extensively, she said.
Madrona said there will be five BRT stations inside SRP and they will be connected to the station on the main corridor.
“So, there is an on-going study by the World Bank regarding the BRT system in Cebu City, that includes the planned wide access road passing SRP to Barangay Pardo where the BRT will be in the middle, and the rest of the vehicles will be on both sides,” Madrona said.
Aside from transport, the research forum also discussed poverty and development that highlights higher education’s challenges, responses and contribution.