Huli ka!

Here's a pic of the Guadalupe bridge, before and after they removed the provincial bus stop.
Sino naman ang engot na nagisip na maglagay ng bus stop sa tulay? Siguro natanggal na sa trabaho 'yun.

FAIL!

Hahahaha! Always wanted to say that. =)

Recently noticed that the provincial bus stop on the Guadalupe bridge has disappeared. So what happened? Not that we're complaining. It was a really stupid idea to begin with.

Anyway, here's a shot of the one at Guadalupe taken last December 6. Hope they do disappear permanently.

The MMDA has announced that it will set up 13 new bus stops on EDSA for the exclusive use of provincial buses. This was prompted by findings showing that the sharing of bus stops by both metro and provincial buses are a major cause of traffic congestion.

Oh no! This means that there will be 13 more spots where you can expect traffic on the already highly congested thoroughfare. Anyway, aren't provincial buses only allowed to load and unload passengers on their bus terminals? This is why they're not supposed to use the yellow lanes, right?

Areas near bus terminals clogged
The TMG has been ordered by the PNP to be on their toes as traffic builds up on roads in and around the metro's bus terminals as people start coming back from (and going back to) the provinces after the holidays.

I suppose the situation in these areas will be bad until next Monday.

MMDA seeks cancellation of ES Transport bus franchise
Due to the closure of ES Transport's bus terminal, the MMDA is requesting the LTFRB to cancel the bus company's franchise. The terminal, which is along EDSA near the Cubao area, was closed by the MMDA last December 23. ES Transport was one of eleven bus companies that were mandated by the MMDA last September to improve their terminals in order to reduce their impact on traffic when going in and out of the terminals.

Public schools to resume on January 3
Over 50,000 public schools nationwide will resume classes starting tomorrow. The majority of private schools, however, will resume classes on Monday, January 7.

So expect traffic to start getting heavier and heavier beginning tomorrow.

Just take a look at all these buses.
The ones on the right have been waiting for a few minutes. The one in the middle was trying to cut in to the right, but ended up loading and unloading right on that spot for at least three minutes. And the one on the left couldn't cut in so he stopped on the foot of the SLEX-bound lane of the flyover to load and unload. This was taken at around 2:30pm today.

When I finally got past these buses, I talked to the MMDA enforcer assigned there to complain. And all he can say was "kakarating ko lang dito galing sa HQ." I think his name was Carito or something like that. Useless.

Here's another example of the ineffectivity of the MMDA's loading and unloading station. This time it's the Buendia-EDSA southbound one.

The commuters coming from Buendia usually wait right underneath the flyover 'cos the station is too far and there's no protection from the rains on the long walk to the station. Of course, passengers alighting from the buses also prefer to go down here.
So what's the MMDA going to do about this?

At the Guadalupe-EDSA southbound bus stop, the buses usually partially block the third lane while loading and unloading passengers. And these buses usually do this before the actual bus stop.
Again, where are the enforcers? They're supposed to prevent these buses from stopping before the bus stop and anywhere except on the outermost lane, and force commuters to go to the designated bus stops.

Here's my analysis of the faults of the MMDA's loading and unloading stations, using pics of the Santolan-EDSA northbound station from yesterday and today.

First, during rush hours, when private vehicles freely use the yellow lanes 'cos of the large volume of vehicles, more traffic is caused when these vehicles merge with the third lane to avoid going into the stations.
Next, since most commuters would want to avoid the long walk to and from the stations (most of these are quite a ways off from the intersections where they come from), the buses end up loading and unloading passengers after the station.Lastly, these buses now try to merge back into the non-yellow lanes in order for them to avoid the stoplight at the ground level (typical on EDSA northbound), causing more traffic on the lanes leading to the flyover and blocking the vehicles heading towards the ground level intersection.So, at this point, I don't really think it helps reduce traffic. In fact, it probably adds to it.

Now, if the MMDA somehow manages to force these buses to load and unload only at the stations, then that's when these stations will be an advantage. Well, except for the part where the private vehicles on the yellow lanes forcibly merge back to avoid them. Parang walang solusyon 'ata para d'yan.

Talagang iniiwasan ng mga bus dumaan sa mga 'to. Here are a few pics:

Here are a couple of pictures showing how the buses coming down the Magallanes flyover swerve to the right to load and unload passengers, well before the actual bus stop (which is where the waiting shed is located).
If you take a look at the second pic, you'll see that these buses block off four of the lanes.

Are these things really helping reduce traffic on EDSA?
The buses try to avoid them for some reason. And commuters think they're too far and prefer waiting near the intersections. And don't even get me started on those yellow lane-passing cars that swerve to avoid these at the last minute.

If the traffic enforcers do their jobs and force the buses to use these stations, then maybe, just maybe, it'll improve things. But at the rate things are going, malabong-malabo 'yon.

These buses swerve three to four lanes to get to the corner right after the entrance of Dasmarinas Village, just dangerously missing vehicles coming from SLEX and Pasong Tamo. Then these buses stop at the second and third lanes to let out and pick up commuters. So those vehicles coming from SLEX and Pasong Tamo are then forced to swerve two to three lanes just to avoid these buses. It's like a house of dominoes!
When, oh, when will the MMDA do something about this?!?

Until now, the MMDA still does not or cannot do anything about the buses that illegally load and unload passengers in the southbound lane of EDSA in front of Mantrade.
Meron naman palaging MMDA enforcers dito?

Just look at these buses at the Pioneer bus stop on northbound EDSA. They're practically occupying four of the five lanes.
And to think it was Maundy Thursday!

Saw this jeep waiting on Aurora at around 2:42pm, right beside the small strip of sidewalk separating those turning left from Nagtahan to Aurora.
This guy must have been stopped for at least 3 minutes. And there were PNP guys just across the intersection. Maybe the effort of crossing the intersection is too much for them. Baka lumiit daw yung waistline nila. Sayang naman daw at kay tagal-tagal nila'ng pinalaki y'un.

Hay naku! Kelan kaya maaayos ito?

Here's another pic of this notorious bus stop on the southbound lane of EDSA, right beside Mantrade.
The irritating thing about it is that there were MMDA traffic enforcers around, and they were doing nothing to stop these buses from stopping here to pick up passengers coming from Pasong Tamo. When will they ever get to fix this?

Just look at this MMDA enforcer. Naka-hinto na nga yung jeepney sa likod n'ya, wala naman s'yang ginagawa.
Hoy manong! Baka hindi mo alam, bawal po'ng huminto d'yan sa lugar na 'yan!

Dang these jeeps!
You can easily see the traffic building up behind them while they unceremoniously load and unload their passengers right on the corner. In fact, they consistently block those crossing the intersection, both for vehicles heading north on EDSA and those coming from Crame.

Instead of staying under the flyover, the numerous MMDA enforcers stationed here should stand on this corner and prevent these jeepneys from stopping here.

Just look at this pic of the southbound ground-level road leading to the EDSA-Shaw intersection.There must really be something wrong with the way the traffic enforcers manage the loading and unloading of the buses in front of Starmall.

And bus drivers like the one driving this Pascual liner really just make it all worse. Dapat talaga bawasan na yung mga ganito sa kalye!