EDSA

A one-way bike lane with physical protection along EDSA in Quezon City.

The entire span of EDSA has one-way Class II bike lanes along both sides of the road, established as part of the national government's Metropolitan Bike Lane Network and funded by the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the bicycle lanes along EDSA are paint separated while some sections have physical separation using bollards and concrete barriers.[6]

Heavy traffic on EDSA as seen from Boni station, looking south towards Guadalupe

The lead agency that manages the flow of traffic along EDSA is the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), a government agency under the Office of the President of the Philippines and is advised by the Metro Manila Mayors League. One of the MMDA's traffic management schemes that is in effect on EDSA, among other major thoroughfares in the metropolis, is the Uniform Vehicular Volume Reduction Program.

Many have observed that the cause of many traffic jams on EDSA is its change from being a highway to an avenue. This resulted the erection of erring establishment, buses and jeepneys. Subsequently, buses have been the target of other traffic management programs, like the MMDA's Organized Bus Route Program.[7] The MMDA is strictly implementing also the Motorcycle and Bus laning in EDSA, making it the second highway in the Philippines ever to have such traffic rule to be enforced, after Commonwealth Avenue.[5][8] The average speed of vehicles in EDSA is 15 kilometers per hour (9.3 mph).

On January 18, 2016, strict implementation on bus lanes started on the Shaw–Guadalupe segment, where plastic barriers are placed and prohibited entry of private vehicles and taxis on the bus lanes except when turning to EDSA's side streets.[9] Despite the plastic barrier, many private vehicles still enter the lanes.[9]

In June 2020, bus routes in the avenue were rationalized, creating the EDSA Carousel line carried by the new EDSA Busway. The EDSA Busway is separated from normal road traffic and now used only for buses and emergency vehicles. The new bus lane spans from Monumento to PITX and is divided by concreted barriers and steel fences. The old rightmost bus lanes was now opened for all vehicles, with the avenue now having total of 4-5 public-use lanes per direction instead of 3, excluding interchanges.

A decongestion program under the Build! Build! Build! Infrastructure Program is ongoing to help decongest EDSA (which is under overcapacity, carrying 402,000 vehicles daily while has the capacity of 288,000).[10] This involves the construction of other roads and bridges that will divert traffic from the avenue. The government aims to reduce travel time from Cubao to Makati to 5–6 minutes.[11]

By 1986, political opposition to the 20-year dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos mounted. In late February, high-ranking military officers including Defence Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and General Fidel Ramos, defected from the Marcos government and seized Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo, two military bases located across each other midway along EDSA. This triggered three days of peaceful demonstrations that became the People Power Revolution.

The majority of protesters were gathered at the gates of the two bases, along a stretch of EDSA between the commercial districts of Cubao in Quezon City and Ortigas Center in Mandaluyong. Over two million Filipino civilians, along with political, military, and religious groups led by Archbishop of Manila Cardinal Jaime Sin, succeeded in toppling President Marcos. Corazon Aquino, the widow of assassinated opposition senator Benigno Aquino Jr., was installed as president on the morning of February 25; by midnight, Marcos had escaped Malacañang Palace with his family, and was flying to exile in Hawaii.

Several landmarks commemorate historical events that occurred along the avenue. At the intersection of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue is EDSA Shrine, a Catholic church capped by a bronze statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Peace. The shrine is dedicated to this Marian title in memory of the pious folk belief that in the 1986 Revolution, the Virgin Mary personally shielded the protesters – many of whom were peacefully praying and singing – as they faced government troops, tanks, and aircraft.

The People Power Monument (Tagalog: Monumento ng Lakás ng Bayan), consisting of a giant statue and esplanade, sits at the corner of EDSA and White Plains Avenue. Sculpted by Eduardo Castrillo and unveiled in 1993, the central sculpture depicts protesters standing upon a circular podium, all surrounding a woman (representing Ináng Bayan or the Motherland), reaching up to the heavens with her outstretched hands and broken shackles. A Philippine flag rises behind her, while a statue of Ninoy Aquino and an eternal flame stand on either side at its base. A huge, limestone-faced wall with grooves for ribbons in the national colors forms a backdrop to the scene. The surrounding pavement contains a row of flagstaffs, and is the center for protests and ceremonies held on the Revolution's anniversary of February 25.

NLEX-bound EDSA as seen from Roosevelt Avenue overpass, prior to the extension of the LRT Line 1 (LRT-1) of the Manila Light Rail Transit System

After the People Power Revolution, the highway was commonly referred to as EDSA, and it was connected to its southern extensions.

In 1997, construction began on the Manila Metro Rail Transit System, which runs the length of EDSA from North Avenue to Taft Avenue. It was opened under the administration of Joseph Estrada, the thirteenth President of the Philippines.[21][22]

The Second EDSA Revolution, which also took place along the avenue, resulted in the peaceful ouster of President Estrada following his impeachment trial. He was succeeded by his Vice-President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. She was sworn in on the terrace of EDSA Shrine by then-Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. at noon on January 20, 2001, several hours before Estrada and his family fled Malacañang Palace.

The EDSA III, which also took place along the avenue from April 25 to May 1 of the same year, resulted in violence when the supporters of former President Estrada attempted to storm the presidential palace and the military and police were ordered to use their arms to drive them back. Arroyo declared a state of rebellion because of the violence and prominent political personalities affiliated with Estrada were charged and arrested.

In 2006, the avenue was further extended from Roxas Boulevard to the SM Mall of Asia on the Bay City Reclamation Project, where it now ends at the Globe Rotunda, a roundabout. That same year, the avenue was badly damaged in September, when Typhoon Milenyo hit Manila.

In 2010, the LRT Line 1 (LRT-1) of the Manila Light Rail Transit System was extended from Monumento to Roosevelt (now Fernando Poe Jr.), ultimately transversing EDSA to end at the site of the current North Avenue MRT station.

On September 9, 2015, the Philippine National Police (PNP) deployed the Highway Patrol Group to support MMDA traffic constables easing traffic on congested segments of EDSA.[23]

In September 2017, the construction of the North Triangle Common Station was started after numerous delays due to bureaucracy and location disputes. It will connect the LRT Line 1, MRT Line 3, MRT Line 7, and the Metro Manila Subway.[24]

An overpass over the North Avenue-West Avenue Intersection and Mindanao Avenue Junction in the Triangle Park and a Flyover over Congressional Avenue and Fernando Poe Jr. Avenue intersection in Muñoz are already approved and may start construction in 2013.[31] As of 2020, the project is currently on hold.

In 2011, Bohol Representative Rene Relampagos filed House Bill (HB) No. 5422, proposing to rename Epifanio de los Santos Avenue as "Corazon Aquino Avenue." According to Relampagos, the idea to rename EDSA after Aquino, who led the 1986 People Power, was conceptualized in the aftermath of her death.[32]

On April 2, 2013, then-President Benigno Aquino III gave the green light for the construction of a flyover at the perennially traffic-choked corner of EDSA and Taft Avenue in Metro Manila.[33]

The project is estimated to cost ₱2.8 billion, with the flyover extending to about 1.4 kilometers (0.87 mi) each side and it will take one and a half years to complete the project.[33]

After stricter implementation of bus lanes and barrier separation through plastic barriers, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will start to replace the orange barriers with a concrete permanent barrier used to separate the bus lanes from private vehicle lanes.[34]

With support from Singapore, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority proposed the implementation of road pricing, based on the Electronic Road Pricing scheme on Singapore, on EDSA to alleviate traffic congestion, along with providing alternate routes and opening some gated community roads. Implementation is set for 2018, but Rene Santiago, a transport engineer and planner, criticized the proposal because it may only worsen congestion, along with the numerous intersections and side streets along EDSA.[35]

The Department of Transportation proposed to have at least two lines of the Metro Manila Bus Rapid Transit System in 2017. EDSA's proposed BRT line will be named "Line 2: Central Corridor". The line will have 48.6 kilometers (30.2 mi) of segregated busways covering the length of the road.[36] The agency planned to scrap the project by June 2018.[37] However, this appeal was rejected and the Line 1 which will be built on Quezon Avenue, which passes EDSA, was later approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) on November 2.[38] In 2019, Senator Win Gatchalian called for the approval of the BRT system as an alternate to the PNR Metro Commuter Line.[39]

On March 16, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) imposed a community quarantine or lockdown, which halted almost all public and private transportations plying in EDSA. This paved way for the immediate construction of the bus rapid transit (BRT) system called EDSA Busway. The interim operations of the BRT system began on July 1, 2020. Intended to be largely served by bus stops along median lanes, some stops are temporarily served by stations on the curbside. The system runs on a dedicated bus lane which is separated by concreted barriers and steel fences.

On August 18, 2023, the MMDA proposed converting the bicycle lanes on EDSA exclusive to bicycles into shared lanes for bicycles and motorcycles, claiming that the EDSA bicycle lanes are "underutilized", and also proposed plans to build an elevated walkway and bikeway on EDSA from Guadalupe to Cubao. A preliminary feasibility study will be conducted within the week, with a stakeholders' meeting with cyclists and motorcycle riders taking place on August 29, 2023.[40][41]

The proposal was criticized by sustainable transport advocates, who claimed that the proposed scheme would compromise the safety of cyclists and argued instead to carve an exclusive motorcycle lane from the regular lanes.[40][41] The Department of Transportation will have the final say on the MMDA's proposal, which has jurisdiction over the EDSA bicycle lanes.[42]