Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

Promoting sustainable and equitable transportation worldwide

 

Manila BRT

ITDP is wrapping up work on the Manila greenway designs and presented greenway and parking plans to local stakeholders in an area named Kapitolyo. The proposed greenways, BRT and parking reform in the area will greatly benefit the livability of the area and attract more visitors to its upcoming restaurant scene. Critically important for residents is that the greenway and BRT plan combined with parking and streetscape improvements will result in less car traffic in the community. Measures to modify traffic circulation will also also mean less traffic cutting through Kapitolyo using United Street as a shortcut to access Pioneer Road and EDSA. ITDP’s proposed plans regarding BRT, greenways and parking reforms in Kapitolyo were enthusiastically endorsed by the representatives of the community who were present at the meeting.

Manila Greenway Program

The objective of Manila Greenway study and preliminary design is to provide a basis for the implementation of greenways and non-motorized transport (NMT) facility improvements in Metro Manila by starting with a ‘core’ greenways network connectingmajor parts of the city. In future, this network can be expanded to additional areas. An extended greenway network could extend along the Pasig and Marikina Rivers, from the Marikina bikeways to San Francisco street in Mandalayong, and possibly all the way to the port area. This “bicycle superhighway” can connect big parts of Manila. A second objective is to integrate greenways and high quality NMT connections with the bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors being planned as part of a separate study carried out by ITDP-China in 2015. A third objective is to combine the greenways work with ongoing work in related areas including bike sharing planning, bike network planning, and an ongoing Asian Development Bank (ADB) resilience planning project.

Manila Parking Reform

Parking is often related to greenways and nonmotorized transport improvement, because parked vehicles often use the space that is proposed to be used for the greenways, and if vehicles are allowed to park on the greenways the greenway network can be severed and rendered useless. It is often therefore essential to consider parking issues in the greenway planning in order to ensure continuity of the greenways. This is the case for some sections of the proposed greenways in Metro Manila, mainly in the Kapitolyo area.

The Kapitolyo area is presented following as a case study in improving parking management. Proposals for on-street parking are integrated with the greenway designs in the designs proposed in this Parking Reform Project. In the proposed design for West Capitol Drive and East Capitol Drive parking spaces are provided on only one side of the street. Given already high parking demand on these streets a parking survey was conducted to document existing parking demand and provide solutions to Kapitolyo’s parking problems.