A myopic and one-sided look at the BRT

The bus rapid transit system being doggedly pushed by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña for implementation is a good example of leadership that insists on its own appreciation of genius to the exclusion of other opinions. Despite widespread and well-meaning opposition to the project, Osmeña insists on the BRT as a solution to a traffic congestion problem he has had the opportunity of decades to solve but utterly failed.

Osmeña is apparently inspired by the success of the BRT in the city of Curitiba in Brazil, which he has had the chance to visit, but apparently did not study very well. Just because the BRT succeeded in Curitiba doesn't mean it will succeed in Cebu City. What Osmeña has not told the Cebuanos is that the BRT was destined to succeed in Curitiba because it was its former mayor who invented the BRT and specifically designed it for his city.

In other words, the BRT and the city of Curitiba was a marriage with all things considered -from population, vehicle density, urban layout, topography- everything was taken into account. In Cebu City, only one consideration matters, that it succeeded in Curitiba. Never mind that the BRT is the only thing Curitiba and Cebu City share in common. Beyond BRT, both cities are as different as apples and oranges.

Curitiba may have more people than Cebu City, but population densities are well-managed. The urban layout is well designed, not haphazard like Cebu City. The urban center of Curitiba is largely pedestrian because everybody is disciplined. Policies for the common good are not hamstrung by too much politics. Besides, Curitiba is huge. That is why it is full of parks and open spaces.

That much expansive elbow room in Curitiba is ideally suited for a BRT system to serve alongside other means of public and private transport. Not like Cebu City where roads are like cholesterol-choked arteries to where Osmeña wants to introduce even more saturated fat. Unless Osmeña can double the width of the existing roads where he plans to toss in his BRT, the project will result in more chaos than relief.

The success of a BRT in a city like Cebu does not consist merely of a train of buses running unimpeded from one point to another. If measured that way, then of course the BRT will succeed because it will have a lane of its own and not compete for space. But at what cost will its presence entail on those who also use the same roads? The BRT cannot be measured on the merits of its own success but on how harmonious its impact will be on the rest of the city.