The EDSA Busway appears to be serving its purpose pretty nicely.
According to the Department of Transportation (DOTr), the EDSA Busway reached a total ridership of 47,104,197 in 2021, averaging around 129,000 riders a day last year.
Also known as the EDSA Carousel, the relatively new median bus lane played a big role in helping alleviate the load placed on Metro Manila’s rail lines by the COVID-19 pandemic. The DOTr highlighted that in the first three months of 2021 alone, the busway was able to service over six million commuters. That’s two million in January, 2.3 million in February, and 2.4 million in March.
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Use of the EDSA Busway ramped up significantly towards the end of last year as well. Recorded data showed that ridership reached 6.4 and 7.4 million in October and November, respectively. Ridership peaked at 7.6 million in December 2021.
“Masaya kami na marami ang nakinabang at patuloy na nakikinabang sa EDSA Busway lalo na ngayong panahon ng pandemya,” DOTr secretary Arthur Tugade said in a statement.
“Kung may episyente at organisadong sistema sa daan at kakambal nito ’yung bawas pasanin sa pamasahe, hindi ’ho ba’t malaking ginhawa ’yan sa ating mga kababayan?”
It doesn’t look like the median lanes on EDSA will be changing anytime soon. Are you a regular user of the EDSA Busway?
