DC Bus

Last week I had the chance to finally ride the new Davao City Bus (DC Bus) with no less than its Project Manager, Assistant City Administrator Tristan Dwight Domingo.

Atty. Dwight was gracious enough to grant me an interview for the Mondays with Patmei podcast on board the bus while cruising along the Davao City Coastal Road during non-peak hours. The experience is definitely one of the highlights of my year!

I am a huge fan of public transportation. I was a bus rider in grade school (even though our house was walking distance to my school) and I walked to school in high school with neighbors who were also my classmates. I took the good old AC jeep in college and walked during transport strike in solidarity with jeepney drivers.

As an adult, I do not have my own a car.  Even when I lived in California, I still was not motivated to drive. Good thing I lived in San Francisco, where it has a good public transportation system. I love cities that have great public transport. That is one of the things I consider when choosing a place to visit.

So when the Davao Public Transport Modernization Project was formally launched on July 1, 2023, I was super excited. It will cover a 672-kilometer bus route network within Davao City with 31 lines and around a thousand buses to serve more than 800,000 passengers daily.

This is part of the sustainable urban transport program of the national government, with Davao City as the pilot city in the Philippines. It is funded through an Official Development Assistance (ODA) agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) amounting to one billion US dollars. The total project cost is estimated at 73.37 billion pesos.

The project aims to replace old jeepneys with a modern, eco-friendly bus system featuring diesel and electric buses, dedicated lanes, and improved infrastructure (terminals, depots, stops) for reduced emissions and congestion. When fully implemented, Davao will have the country’s first fully integrated city-wide bus system, inspired by Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

BRT is a high-quality bus-based transit system designed to combine the speed, reliability, and passenger experience of a light rail system with the lower cost and flexibility of a bus.

Almost three years since it was launched, the project encountered significant delays in implementation. The Department of Transportation (DoTr) is the agency tasked to implement it.

Since Davaoeños have been waiting too long for the promised bus, the city government went ahead and implemented what it can through an Interim Service with 10 new low-floor buses called DC Bus purchased with local funds. Currently, it provides free transport service during peak hours within limited bus routes.

It is obviously not enough, but it is something Davao can use now while waiting for the national government to fully fund and implement the larger modernization project.

Probably to motivate the national government to step up, our local government already allocated a stand-by 1.5 billion pesos trust fund to serve as the city’s local counterpart financing for the project. This is a clear message to everyone that Davao City is taking this project seriously.

Public transport is not merely a convenience in highly urbanized cities; it is a critical systemic backbone essential for their economic viability, environmental sustainability, social equity, and overall quality of life. As cities grow denser, the importance of a robust, integrated public transit network becomes a priority.

Public transport supports efficiency and decongestion. A city that functions well moves people, not cars. A single train or bus can replace hundreds of private vehicles, dramatically reducing traffic congestion. It also maximizes land use. Public transport moves large volumes of people through narrow corridors, preserving scarce urban land for housing, parks, and businesses rather than for sprawling roads and parking lots. It also offers predictable travel times, crucial for economic productivity and daily planning.

It promotes environmental sustainability. Public transport has a far lower carbon footprint per passenger-kilometer than private cars. Electric buses, electrified rail systems and trams are key to decarbonizing urban mobility. It also improves air quality, directly improving public health and reducing healthcare costs. A shift from private vehicles to public transport is an essential component of any city’s climate action plan.

Public transport improves economic vitality. It connects workers to jobs and employers to a larger talent pool, fostering economic growth. Efficient transit expands the effective “labor shed” of employment centers. Transit hubs (stations) become focal points for economic activities, retail, and business. Property values typically rise near well-served stations. Easy to navigate transit systems are essential for tourism, allowing visitors to access attractions efficiently.

It also promotes social equity and inclusion. For low-income residents, the elderly, youth, and people with disabilities, public transport is often the only affordable means of accessing essential services — education, healthcare, jobs, and civic life. It can also connect disparate neighborhoods. It can integrate marginalized communities into the city’s economic and social fabric, reducing spatial inequality. A well-designed system ensures the city is accessible to all, regardless of income or ability to drive, fostering a more inclusive society.

High-quality public transit enables and encourages denser, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods centered around stations. This creates more vibrant, human-scale communities. It also reduces noise with less need for high-speed roads and improves public safety due to quieter streets and lower rates of traffic fatalities. Reduced car dependency allows cities to reclaim spaces for pedestrians, cyclists, plazas, green areas, and public spaces, dramatically improving urban livability.

Public transport also supports resilience and security. In emergencies (natural disasters, crises), public transport can serve as a critical evacuation or emergency response network.

For a highly urbanized city like Davao, a world-class public transport system is not an optional amenity but essential infrastructure. It is as critical as water lines or the electrical grid. It is the circulatory system that allows the city to function, thrive, and grow sustainably.

Cities that invest wisely in transit reap rewards in economic competitiveness, environmental health, and social cohesion. Those that neglect it risk gridlock, polluted air, deepening inequality, and a diminished quality of life for all residents.

If we want to be able to keep saying “life is here” then we need to be serious about having a sustainable public transport system. Because the future of urban living is inextricably linked to the quality of its public transport. ###