BRT: Breaking road traditions

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a modern mass transport system which can be quickly implemented at a low-to-moderate cost (Nikitas & Karlsson, 2015).

- Atty, lan Vincent Manticajon [e-mail]

In the case of Cebu City, however, the word 'quick' is hardly applicable, given the bureaucratic hurdles and political head currents the BRT here faces.

Finally, Package 1 of the BRT project, spanning from the N. Bacalso station to the Capitol along Osmeña Boulevard, has undergone test runs this week. Cebu City Transportation Office chief Raquel Arce, in an interview with reporters last week, said that at least 10 CIBUS units will be used during the dry run.

For the full operation, 17 buses will be allotted to the BRT, which will operate from 6 A.M. to 11 P.M., from Il Corso to IT Park, Arce said. However, since only Package 1 has been completed, the buses will run on BRT-dedicated lanes uninterrupted by traffic only between N. Bacalso and the Capitol.

Still, I'm excited about this development, that finally we will be implementing the BRT, even if only in stages. Yet I know many people are not as excited, or even dislike the BRT, thinking it is a bane to the city's already-worsening traffic.