MANILA—Cars carrying only the driver will be banned from EDSA during rush hour under a measure approved by Metro Manila mayors, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said on Tuesday.

The MMDA said the Metro Manila Council approved the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) scheme where "only those vehicles with two or more passengers would have the privilege to traverse EDSA."

“We have a data that 70 percent of vehicles along EDSA carry only the driver,” MMDA general manager Jojo Garcia said in a statement.

The MMDA did not say when it will begin implementing the scheme, but said it will draft guidelines and conduct a dry run before its full implementation.

Garcia said the hope is to encourage carpooling through the HOV measure.

In an interview with DZMM Teleradyo, Garcia also said that the ban may not apply to the whole stretch of EDSA, as some segments of the thoroughfare have no alternative routes.

"Pipiliin lang natin 'yung mga segments na kailangan natin," he said. (We will only choose the segments that we need.)

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He said mayors also supported the agency’s plan to regulate the entry of provincial buses on EDSA.

Under the plan, selected provincial buses coming from the north will end their route at the Valenzuela Interim Terminal while buses coming from the south will end their route at South Interim Provincial Terminal, the MMDA said.

The plan was supposed to be implemented on August 15, but Garcia said the agency is still studying this.

"We are not in a hurry to implement the policy as we want to make sure everything is in order,” Garcia said.