Samar Representative and House Transportation Committee Chairman Edgar Sarmiento proposes the use beep cards or e-cards to replace the current manual bus fare system as a solution to EDSA’s traffic problem.
Sarmiento said that apart from ensuring smooth loading and unloading bus systems, improving the current fare system can also help in easing Metro Manila traffic.
The lawmaker said that the planned national id can be turned into a machine readable card in order to implement the proposed beep car’s system.
“Currently they are just thinking at a plain ID. It’s a waste of resources. Why not make it multi-purpose? Make it as a tap card. Make it function like a credit card or an ATM card, and you can load money on it so you can use it as a tap card. You can use it as SSS, Pag-Ibig, and Philhealth card,” Sarmiento said in a statement.
The lawmaker said that beep cards will be helpful as well to organize the current bus system.
“Because of current multiple operators, its cost-inefficient to have that tap card system in place. If we have consolidated operations, then we will have enough volume to have that system,” he said.
The House of Representatives is also doing a consultation to solve EDSA traffic in one year.
