The EDSA Carousel is Line 1.
It already works.

In Philippine culture, it is believed that when you accidentally bite your tongue it means someone might remember you and possibly talk about you. I bet if Epifanio de los Santos is still alive today, damn his tongue might be bleeding up until this time of writing. As to the numerous times, we kept on saying his name as part of the EDSA that we know of today.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, exactly June of 2020 when the country is still under the restricted quarantine, is when the Department of Transportation (DOTr), also activated 29 bus augmented routes in Metro Manila. Surprisingly, EDSA Carousel, or EDSA BRT was part of these augmented bus routes.

Prior to this implementation, bus and EDSA have been two words that don't really go along with. If we remember, MMDA even implemented the Bus Segregation Scheme during 2012.^[1] Where buses are tagged with stickers A, B, C and along with that are the only appropriate bus stations they are only allowed to drop-off and allow passengers to embark the bus.

Another scheme that was very infamous is the “Yellow Lane Policy”, in which buses are only allowed to use the two right outmost lanes of EDSA, and if whoever decides to get out of that yellow lane, expect a ticket from the MMDA.^[2]

This has been the history of Bus, EDSA, and even MMDA in the long years of battling the right way of doing things in Metro Manila. This only resolves when the bus augmented programs kicks-in as buses are now permanently moved in the innermost side of EDSA.

Did the EDSA Carousel do a good job? Did commuters feel the advantage of these new tricks in EDSA? Is EDSA Carousel the best thing that happened during the pandemic?

I will not directly answer it as it may impose such bias with my own writing. But one thing that I can say is that, EDSA Carousel and EDSA BRT is a real thing. Indeed it's possible for buses to utilize the innermost lane of that well recognized highway in the country, and if it can be done in EDSA where else it couldn't be, right?

Personally, it is a dream. It's like seeing Michael Jordan, it's like seeing Michael Phelps, and many more legends that you never thought of seeing in real life. But the same goes applies, as many people believe that we should “never really meet our idols” right? Which is kinda the same with EDSA BRT, right now.

EDSA BRT right now, given almost 6 years of its operation. What can we learn from it? Should we expand it? Or is it only a one time thing?

Presented above is the actual organizational structure of the EDSA Busway when it was launched in 2020.^[3]

Now, obviously the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) is not a thing anymore, but the rest of the government agencies are still a thing. DOTr, MMDA, LTFRB, DPWH, are still involved as these are government agencies.

If you haven't been able to read my writings about LTFRB, this is basically what I was pointing-out. As you can see, an Inter-Agency is still required just to fund, conceptualise, engineer, organise, and even the construction of the actual BRT line. This is exactly what the discussion about the weakness of LTFRB in the National Capital Region.

The mere fact that four agencies must work together shows inefficiency and in-effectiveness in doing these transportation changes. It's very saddening, cause we are still in this hump. Yes, it resolves traffic time, but to take-up four agencies just to execute one, is not an ideal model. Right? Something is definitely wrong.

Never meet your idols, I believe the very few years how it started, it works correctly. It works perfectly. But as time goes by, and as maintenance starts to kick-in and the blurriness of EDSA Carousel is already in question?

Who really maintains who? Who really should fund the EDSA Carousel?

This is where it brings reality into the table. Regardless of how beautiful the project may be, if no proper support is presented, no executive order that backs it, no legal writing that argues for it, then time will tell whether or not how EDSA Carousel can sustain this demand or just naturally degrade its service on its own.

Again, demand is never the problem, we are 14 million people as a region.

In Cebu BRT, many key concepts can be learned. Remember the IATF that spearheaded the EDSA busway in 2020, this is what CEBU BRT lacks in today's time and date, I personally believe. I mean even EDSA Busway now, it works without it's IATF, which kinda explains why? Why it is degrading its service?

Again, questions of who handles who, who earns who? And who maintains who? I mean seriously, who?

In EDSA alone, yes we acknowledge the help of private entities like SM in initiating these modern bus stations, right?^[4] But honestly, is it healthy to have that? Even in DOTr, can they really maintain these stations as these stations are serving 24/7 all throughout all the seasons of the year.

The long answer might be yes — If the transportation secretary can find yearly budgets in the maintenance and even modernization of these bus stops, but once that office changes its leader once again, the long list of questions of “who” will start piling-up again and definitely the easiest answer for them all, is a hard — ‘no’.

Public infrastructure that depends on private goodwill is not a healthy system, it exploits our transportation system. It waves the natural foot traffic to their favor, which somehow is similar to what is a concept more known today as ‘Induced demand’.^[5]

Thus, ask the same question, to whom are these BRT stations serving? Serving its people or just a mere mediocrity of our public transportation.

Are we really ready for more BRT lines in Metro Manila? Or should we just be happy that we have one?

In a study entitled How BRT Lost Its Way in the Philippines (Santiago, Villarete 2023),^[6]EDSA was not even on the original list of recommended BRT corridors precisely because MRT-3 already existed on the same median. To place a BRT on the same corridor is, in their words, a violation of the principle of complementarity — different modes should complement, not compete. Their assessment? The EDSA Carousel and MRT-3 are not a network.

The shared stations of these two transportation systems creates confusion and competition rather than a complement and connected network of transportation. Imagine EDSA Carousel, mirrors the same MRT3 stations? Indeed a clash between the two yet commuters seem to be the ones on the losing end.

Before I end, the deployment of the Philippine Coast Guard in EDSA Carousel? Does it even justify the branch of service they serve? I mean, yes these men in uniform are under DOTr, but isn't inhumane for them to be deployed in the EDSA Carousel, even if it's masked as a way of public service? And love for flag & country?^[7]

Indeed, a representation of Metro Manila's transportation, at its finest.