Bataan solon: Use double-decker buses to solve EDSA traffic woes

BALANGA City – Representative Enrique “Tet” Garcia of Bataan’s second district on Thursday announced a proposal of deploying double-decker buses to help solve the pestering traffic congestion in EDSA.

“With the current traffic situation plaguing Metro Manila, it is high time that government considers introducing double-deckers to ply the EDSA route,” Garcia said.

He reasoned out that double-decker buses carry twice the number of passengers of ordinary buses but will only occupy the same road space as one. “It has been announced that old public transport buses will have to be phased out, so this is an opportune time to require the bus operators to replace their old buses with double-deckers,” Garcia said.

He said that many Asian countries including Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and China already deploy double-decker buses. “We really need to find solutions fast if we want to improve our current rating from being the fifth country in the world, and the third in Asia, with the worst traffic conditions,” the former Bataan governor said.

Garcia cited as added bonus the consequent reduction in fuel consumption and air pollution in the metropolis. P/Chief Supt. Arnold Gunacao, Highway Patrol Group head, welcomed the proposal but expressed concern that overpasses and elevated walk-ways along EDSA may not be high enough to allow double-decker buses to pass through.

“But if this can be addressed, the congressman’s proposal will most certainly help in easing the traffic congestion,” the police official said. Garcia said that he brought the matter to Chairman Francis Tolentino of the Metro Manila Development Authority as early as last year. It was not pursued because the traffic problem then was not as acute as today and there were other pressing concerns that MMDA had to attend to, the congressman said.

When recently asked about it, he said that Tolentino similarly agreed that double-decker buses will help reduce traffic on EDSA. According to the chairman, there may not even be a need to raise the elevated walk-ways and other structures along the EDSA route because there are double-deckers with heights of one and a half of the full-sized ones but which are capable of carrying the same number of passengers, Garcia said.