Solon appeals to rowdy bus drivers to abandon KKB ways during ‘ber’ months

By Ellson Quismorio

This was Samar 1st district Rep. Edgar Mary Sarmiento’s appeal to bus companies and drivers with the onset of the so-called ‘Ber’ months or the Christmas season, or that time of the year when the traffic situation in the metropolis becomes all that more punishing.

Samar Rep. Edgar Mary Sarmiento (Congress/ Manila Bulletin)

According to Sarmiento, KKB aptly describes the rowdy, undisciplined and disorderly behavior of Metro Manila’s bus and jeepney drivers.

“It’s KKB that is causing Metro Manila’s traffic mess…You don’t have to be a genius to know that buses crowding various chokepoints are the biggest cause of traffic along EDSA,” the Visayas solon said.

“If you check these buses, only a few are really full the rest would linger on these chokepoints to get more passengers. Agawan ng pasahero at kanya-kanyang balagbag sila sa kalsada kahit maharangan na nila ang ibang motorista (They compete with each other in getting passengers to the inconvenience of other motorists),” he further said.

Sarmiento reckoned that what should be done is for the government to assert control on the flow of buses as well as facilitate the smooth transition of buses from the point of dispatch to the loading and unloading points.

And to ensure that all bus companies will have equal share on the pool of buses that will be included in the program, the lawmaker said it would be best if they organize themselves into a cooperative or a consortium which would form part of a single bus fleet.

With this, the headache-inducing KKB style can be replaced with an orderly bus segregation scheme and an end-to-end synchronized bus dispatch system, Sarmiento said.

However, the solon noted that there is still a need to design EDSA’s bus stops to allow intermobility with other modes of transportation. He said loading and unloading zones should have easy access to MRT stations as well as tricycle and jeepney terminals.

“This dispatch system will not succeed if there is no interconnection with our MRT stations and terminals for jeepneys, tricycles and pedicabs. If we can sync all these modes of transport, you will not need to ban singles on EDSA just to ease traffic,” he said, referring to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) much-maligned high occupancy vehicle policy along the major thoroughfare.

“More people would definitely opt taking the bus instead of driving their cars if we can have an efficient public transport system. Intermobility is the solution to solve Metro Manila’s traffic problem,” Sarmiento stressed.