All you need to know about EDSA.

Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, commonly referred to by its acronym EDSA, is a limited-access circumferential highway around Manila, the capital city of the Philippines.

It passes through 6 of Metro Manila's 17 local government units or cities, namely, from north to south, Caloocan, Quezon City, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Makati, and Pasay.

Named after academic Epifanio de los Santos, the road links the North Luzon Expressway at the Balintawak Interchange in the north to the South Luzon Expressway at the Magallanes Interchange in the south, as well as the major financial districts of Makati Central Business District, Ortigas Center, and Araneta City. It is the longest and the most congested highway in the metropolis, stretching some 23.8 kilometers (14.8 mi).

EDSA in Details

EDSA on map

Name: Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, EDSA

Part of: AH26

Maintained by: the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority

Length: 23.8 km (14.8 mi) includes extension in Bay City, Pasay

Existed: 1940–present

Component highways:

C-4 from Monumento to Roxas Boulevard
AH 26 (N1) from Monumento to Roxas Boulevard
N145 in Bangkal, Makati

Restrictions: No heavy trucks, tricycles

EDSA Major Junctions

North end: Bonifacio Monument Circle in Caloocan
AH 26 (E1) (North Luzon Expressway) / N160 (A. Bonifacio Avenue) at Balintawak Cloverleaf in Quezon City
N171 (West Avenue) / N173 (North Avenue) in Quezon City
N170 (Quezon Avenue) in Quezon City
N172 (Timog Avenue) / N174 (East Avenue) in Quezon City
N180 / N59 (Aurora Boulevard) in Cubao, Quezon City
N184 / N60 (Ortigas Avenue) at Ortigas Interchange in Quezon City and Mandaluyong
N141 (Shaw Boulevard) in Mandaluyong
N190 (Gil Puyat Avenue / Kalayaan Avenue) in Makati
N145 (Osmeña Highway) / AH 26 (E2) (South Luzon Expressway) at Magallanes Interchange in Makati
N170 (Taft Avenue) at Pasay Rotunda in Pasay
AH 26 (N120) / N61 (Roxas Boulevard) in Pasay
South end: SM Mall of Asia Globe Rotunda in Bay City, Pasay

EDSA Structure

The entire avenue forms part of Circumferential Road 4 (C-4) of Metro Manila's arterial road network, National Route 1 (N1) of the Philippine highway network and Asian Highway 26 (AH26) of the Asian Highway Network, while its westbound service road from Osmeña Highway in barangay Bangkal, Makati forms part of National Route 145 (N145).

The locations around the avenue were marked with great economic and industrial growth, proven by the fact that all but two industrial centers in the Metropolis are directly accessible from the thoroughfare. The decent economic growth of the areas around the avenue adds a significant volume of traffic on the avenue, and in recent estimates, and an average of 2.34 million vehicles go through it every day.

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

The avenue is a divided carriageway, often consisting of 12 lanes, 6 in either direction, with the elevated railroads Manila Metro Rail Transit System Line 3 and Manila Light Rail Transit System Line 1 often serving as its median.

EDSA and MRT-3 Stops

Although it is not an expressway, traffic rules and speed limits are strictly implemented to the vehicles that pass along it.

EDSA is operated by the Metro Manila Development Authority and is maintained and constantly being repaired by the Department of Public Works and Highways, whose maintenance over EDSA excludes the extension at Bay City in Pasay.

Cheapest Flights and Airline Tickets Online Booking

EDSA Traffic Management

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.

Motorcycle and Bus lanes in 2018

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.

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.

Buses inside EDSA Carousel

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.

ATTRACTIONS TO SEE IN MANILA

History of EDSA

Construction of what was then called the North and South Circumferential Road began in 1939 under President Manuel L. Quezon. The construction team was led by engineers Florencio Moreno and Osmundo Monsod.

The road, starting from North Bay Boulevard in Navotas and ending at Taft Avenue (formerly known as Taft Avenue Extension / Manila South Road) in Pasay, then in the province of Rizal, was finished in 1940 shortly before the outbreak of World War II and the subsequent Japanese Occupation. It was then known as the Manila Circumferential Road or simply as Circumferential Road. It was also renamed to Highway 54 and thus designated as Route 54. Due to the route number, there was a common misconception on that time that the avenue is 54 kilometers (34 mi) long.

EDSA looking north to SM City North EDSA

The present-day North EDSA section in Caloocan and Quezon City was referred to as Calle Samson (Samson Street), while its section in Pasay was also known as P. Lovina Street. After the independence of the Philippines from the United States in 1946, the road was renamed Avenida 19 de Junio (June 19 Avenue), after the birth date of national hero José Rizal.

In the 1950s, the northern end of the avenue was designated to its present terminus at Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan and its section west of it later became known as Samson Road, General San Miguel Street, and Letre Road, respectively.

The northern terminus of EDSA at the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan.

In the same decade, Rizalists wanted the avenue's name to remain 19 de Junio, while President Ramon Magsaysay wanted the avenue named after Rizal. Residents of Rizal province (to which most parts of Metro Manila belonged until 1975) wanted the avenue to be named after a Rizaleño: the historian, jurist and scholar named Epifanio de los Santos y Cristóbal.

EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue in the 90's

The Philippine Historical Committee (now the National Historical Commission of the Philippines), the Philippine Historical Association, the Philippine Library Association, Association of university and College Professors, the Philippine China Cultural Association, and the Philippine National Historical Society, led by fellow Rizaleños Eulogio Rodríguez, Sr. and Juan Sumulong, supported the renaming of Highway 54 to Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.

On April 7, 1959, De los Santos' birth anniversary, Republic Act No. 2140 was passed, renaming the avenue to honor him.

Makati eagle boundary marker in EDSA in the 90's

Rapid urbanization in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly after the annexation of several Rizal towns to the newly established National Capital Region, marked the growth of the industrial centers along the road, and several other roads connected to the avenue, such as Ayala Avenue and McKinley Road in Makati.

During the rule of President Ferdinand Marcos, traffic jams along the avenue started to build up. Several interchanges were constructed to relieve congestion, including the Balintawak and Magallanes Interchanges.

Magallanes Interchange

Later, with the implementation of the Metro Manila Arterial Road System in 1965, in order to complete the Circumferential Road 4 system, EDSA was extended from Taft Avenue to Roxas Boulevard, occupying parcels of land along the old F. Rein and Del Pan Streets in Pasay. Until the mid-1980s, many parts of the highway still overlooked vast grassland and open fields.

EDSA Extension looking west towards SM Mall of Asia

ACTIVITIES AND TOURS IN MANILA

The EDSA Revolution

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.

People Power Revolution in EDSA in 1986

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.

Monuments in EDSA

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.

EDSA Shrine today

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.

People Power Monument

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.

EDSA Live Update

MMDA feeds live traffic updates on their social media for EDSA on an hourly and daily basis. See below updates:

Tweets by MMDA

EDSA: Guide to Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (C-4 of Manila)