To enable workers to access the nineteen “department or feeder” bus routes, we want to duplicate the excessive-volume public transport routes, but with proper social distancing and sanitary practices, in order that medical experts and different critical frontliners can flow across the metropolis efficaciously.
In many nations, like China and South Korea, public transport was by no means close down due to the fact public transportation might be required with the aid of important workers. Buses and trains in those nations persevered going for walks during the emergency, however with strict sanitation necessities.
In the Philippines, the authorities may want to settlement and deploy, as an example, 2,000 buses to serve the anticipated six hundred,000 or so essential frontline people that need to visit paintings every day. The buses on “trunk” routes (e.G., EDSA, Quezon Avenue, Aurora Blvd., Ortigas Avenue, and so forth.) would perform with high frequency (at least one bus every 15 mins), while local government gadgets could be endorsed to augment the existing “feeder or branch” services the use of vans, minibuses and modern-day jeepneys. Frequency of the trunk routes is critical because humans want to realize that if they leave out a bus, every other one can be coming in a quick whilst.
Bus services would be provided by way of the private zone and paid out of the government’s finances. Bus rides might to begin with be unfastened to keep away from coins dealing with; in a while, fare playing cards will be used as the medium for charge. Under their contracts, bus corporations might be paid to provide a service; their performance might be monitored and assessed using data technology. Penalties could be applied for failure to fulfill carrier requirements. With this machine, there would be no incentive to overload a bus with passengers.
Each bus on a trunk course might function for approximately sixteen hours daily with two shifts of drivers with a hard and fast profits and advantages. Trunk route bus services would ideally perform 24/7 due to the fact many frontline people work across the clock. Where viable, buses could be assigned different lanes that could permit them to tour faster, liberated from friction with private cars.
Strict sanitary practices would be required inside and outside the automobiles. Buses would be completely disinfected two times daily. All drivers and passengers would be required to wear masks.
No passenger might be seated beside every other. At all bus stops, site visitors enforcers might be deployed to prepare queues with proper physical distancing; employee identification playing cards might be checked even as each passenger is standing within the queue to catch the bus.
To keep our maximum precious useful resource, we need to provide public transportation that is secure, enough and reliable. Unless we care for the health and well-being of our frontline employees, we cannot assume them to deliver the essential offerings and capabilities that anybody rely on. Who is aware of? Covid-19 might just be the catalyst for the plenty-favored transformation of road-primarily based public transportation within the Philippines.