Half of EDSA for bikers, pedestrians only on June 28

**Monseratto** · June 22nd, 2015 04:36 PM

Shows how brilliant Chariman Beautiful Eyes is, turning a major throughfare into a park... You've been warned!

MANILA, Philippines – Another revolution is set to take place on Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) on Sunday, June 28.

For the first time ever, Metro Manila's main thoroughfare will become a shared road, with one half of both its north- and south-bound lanes devoted to pedestrians and bikers, and the other half for vehicles.

The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) announced on Monday, June 22, that this road-sharing will take place from 12 am to 11:59 pm on Sunday.

Only one portion of EDSA will follow the road-sharing scheme – the area from Ortigas to SM Mall of Asia in Pasay. The halving of the roads will be implemented on both the south-bound and north-bound lanes.

Each EDSA lane is composed of 5 smaller lanes. They will be divided as follows:

Lane 1 (lane closest to existing sidewalks) - Walk lane

Lane 2 - Bike lane

Lane 3 - City buses

Lane 4 - Provincial buses and private vehicles

Lane 5 - Private vehicles

The aim of the road-sharing scheme is to introduce a transportation system with a reduced number of private cars, said renowned environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa Jr, the mastermind behind the Share the Road movement.

"Why is there traffic? Because we have too many cars. The whole point of this exercise is to improve transportation using existing resources," he said during the press conference.

Heroism on the road

Road-sharing, he says, is an exercise of the "Bayanihan sa Daan" principle in which the road becomes a venue for people to practice cooperative heroism.

The overall goal of the movement is to improve traffic in Philippine cities. The hope is that an equally distributed road will encourage more people to walk or bike, lessening the number of cars on the road.

Less than 1% of Filipinos own cars, says Oposa, yet they are given a lion's share of the road. Pedestrians, meanwhile, make do with tiny, often rutted, sidewalks. Bikers too have to make the most of bike lanes not respected by all motorists.

With one half of each of the lanes devoid of cars, pedestrians and bikers are given a wider space.

"I have full support for this program, for any effort to clean our air, improve health of our citizens, and ease traffic," said MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino.

He said this was only a "proof of concept" and trial, "so we can see what will happen, if it will work."

But the share-the-road scheme has also been criticized for doing the exact opposite – aggravating traffic woes.

When a similar event was held on Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City, it was badly received by private car drivers and jeepney drivers who had to endure traffic jams caused by road closures.

But Oposa says the congestion was due to a lack of communication, not the road exercise itself.

He appealed to private car drivers to take an alternative route since they will only be given only 2 out of 5 lanes on EDSA.

Half of EDSA for bikers, pedestrians only on June 28

**Challenger75** · June 22nd, 2015 04:41 PM

This will be remembered as "The day EDSA stood still." Btw, pls provide source of the article so we can verify.

**cast_no_shadow** · June 22nd, 2015 04:47 PM

no lane for MCs?? or considered sila na bike?

**BratPAQ** · June 22nd, 2015 04:52 PM

Half of EDSA for bikers, pedestrians only on June 28

**cast_no_shadow** · June 22nd, 2015 04:55 PM

so ang bus pwede lang magsakay/magbaba ng pasahero is ortigas and MOA?

wala ng hintuan?

tapos they are encouraging the public to take the public transpo?

pano kung bababa sa Boni? buendia? ayala? magallanes?

Sa MOA / Ortigas kayo bumaba!

**Calistro** · June 22nd, 2015 04:58 PM

A designated walk lane, outside the sidewalk? So meron pang bazaar para sa mga sidewalk vendors sa sunday heheh

**Monseratto** · June 22nd, 2015 05:03 PM

I wonder how will that work in sections of EDSA that are bottleknecks (from 6 lanes to 3-2 lanes) ...

**Stoner** · June 22nd, 2015 05:06 PM

...then commuters will still take over other lane(s) to wait for PUB's.

It will all start when one stands far out the outer edge of lane 2 as a 'diskarte' to first get into arriving buses. Others will soon follow suit, city buses will straddle/occupy lanes 3-to-4, and the rest is history.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

...then commuters will still take over other lane(s) to wait for PUB's.

It will all start when one stands far out the outer edge of lane 2 as a 'diskarte' to first get into arriving buses. Others will soon follow suit, city buses will straddle/occupy lanes 3-to-4, and the rest is history.