Lawmaker suggests opening Edsa busway to e-vehicles

ROOM FOR MORE | A suggestion from a House member to let electric vehicles also use the Edsa busway earned the support of at least one major business group during a committee hearing on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (Photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Bataan Rep. Albert Garcia has broached the idea of allowing electric vehicles (EVs) to use the dedicated bus lane along Edsa as an incentive to promote green transport and a way to decongest Metro Manila’s busiest thoroughfare.

In a hearing held on Wednesday by the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, Garcia said the government could consider allowing e-vehicles to use the busway, which is currently an exclusive lane for the Edsa Bus Carousel, to help alleviate traffic while encouraging car users to shift to EVs.

“I strongly believe that we could see improvement with this solution,” Garcia said. “It could finally be the solution of our big problem of P3.5 billion in losses every day that would escalate to P6 billion a day by 2030.”

Garcia is referring to two separate Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) studies that showed that the Philippines had been losing P3.5 billion a day due to the traffic problem, an amount that could balloon to P6 billion a day in six years if left unchecked.

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Allowing EVs to use the busway, he said, could help maximize the lane’s “carrying capacity,” or the number of passengers that could pass through the lane in a day.

Based on current monitoring, about 550 bus trips with a total capacity of 454,000 passengers pass through the busway daily.

Copying Norway’s busway policy

Garcia’s proposal takes a leaf from Norway’s transport policies, which allow EVs to drive in the bus lane, grant them free parking and charging, and exempt them from road and tunnel tolls.

These policies, the Bataan lawmaker said, helped Norway become the world’s top adopter of EVs, with two-thirds of the cars in the Scandinavian country now electric.

His proposal could lead to other environment-friendly measures or projects, Garcia said, such as getting the Department of Energy (DOE) to set up solar charging ports for EVs and encouraging bus operators to switch to EVs for their fleets.

The DOE came up with a similar proposal in 2022 as part of efforts to promote EVs. Part of the plan was to issue “green plates” for EVs for easier monitoring, according to Energy Undersecretary Felix Fuentebella.

Previous suggestions to let more types of vehicles use the busway have been met with resistance, especially from commuter groups, who argue that such dedicated lanes should adhere to globally accepted standards to maintain efficiency.