The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Monday reported a significant decrease in the number of apprehended EDSA Busway policy violators.
MMDA assistant general manager for operations and assistant secretary David Angelo Vargas attributed the decline to the agency’s consistent operations against erring motorists and the implementation of higher penalties.
“Motorists are gradually obeying traffic rules and regulations in Metro Manila, particularly the EDSA Busway policy,” Vargas said.
Vargas compared the number of apprehensions on Monday and last week. “At around 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. last week, we usually apprehended more or less 60 violators. But today, we have observed that there was a minimal number of unauthorized vehicles entering the exclusive bus lane,” said Vargas during the early Monday morning rush hour monitoring of EDSA from Taft Ave. in Pasay City to Cubao, Quezon City.
He said that as of 11 a.m. Monday, it recorded only 29 apprehensions, with motorcycles accounting for most of the violations. The agency reminded the public that bicycles are also not allowed on the EDSA Busway.
A netizen sent a video to the MMDA showing a biker using the bus lane on Sunday.
Authorized vehicles on the EDSA Busway include passenger buses, ambulances, fire trucks, Philippine National Police vehicles and busway project service vehicles (construction, security, janitorial, and maintenance services).
The EDSA Busway can also be used by the President, the Vice President, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court Chief Justice to assist in the performance of their duties.
Violators of the EDSA Busway policy will be penalized with P5,000 on first offense; P10,000 plus one-month suspension of driver’s license and mandatory road safety seminar on second offense; P20,000 plus one-year suspension of driver’s license on third offense and P30,000 plus recommendation to the Land Transportation Office for revocation of driver’s license on fourth offense.