Part Two
“The concept of Smart Cities involve innovations in the transportation sector,” University of Bremen Prof. Hans Dietrich Haasis said. “The mobility industry will push the development of the traffic situation anywhere.”
Haasis’s view that modern transportation network is an important component of a smart city is shared by local experts. “Of course it is—integrated with communications,” said Alvin P. Ang, Economics professor at the Ateneo de Manila University.
University of Asia and the Pacific Dean of Economics Cid L. Terosa noted that a modern transportation network is one of many potential results of efforts to establish a smart city.
“The major components of a smart city program is information and communications technology, digital technologies, and the integration of these systems to enhance the features of cities and manage their resources.”
To this end, the transportation department—as early as the Aquino administration—has been pushing for innovations in the transport sector, such as the modernization of old jeepneys.
Former Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya drafted the jeepney-modernization program to ensure the safety of commuters and help mitigate the impact of climate change through e-jeeps, which feature a reloadable card-payment system, global positioning system navigation device, Internet and closed-circuit television camera.
Abaya had planned to start phasing out the jeepneys this year until all have been replaced by high-technology and environment-friendly vehicles that lessen air pollution.
Currently, there is a draft department order (DO) from the transportation department that, when it takes effect in August, shall require operators to replace their old units with new ones.
According to the DO, each operator is required to have a minimum capitalization of P7 million, and should have at least 10 units to have a franchise to operate.
Of course, jeepney drivers and operators will not just take these changes sitting down. And judging from the transport strike staged by jeepney associations on Monday, the country is still very much dependent on this type of public-utility vehicles (PUVs), with several cities paralyzed resulting in suspension of classes, according to reports.
The nationwide transport strike put Metro Manila at a standstill, even as jeepney and other public-transportation drivers in Cebu, Iloilo, Albay, Catanduanes and Camarines Norte joined their colleagues in Manila to protest the government’s plan to phase out the iconic jeepneys that have provided cheap and reliable transportation to Filipinos since the end of World War II.
Throughout the National Capital Region, thousands of commuters walked to their places of work and other destinations, as some drivers of jeepneys, tricycles and buses refused to ply their routes.
The strike was called by the Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) and supported by Anakbayan, Kabataan Party-list and other cause-oriented groups and their affiliates nationwide.
The head of the Cebu chapter of Piston, Greg Perez, claimed 80-percent paralysis in Metro Cebu.
Danny Garcia, spokeman of Albay Gov. Al Francis C. Bichara, placed at 65 percent the number of striking public-transport drivers in the province.
Albay was joined by drivers and operators in Camarines Norte and some sympathetic public-transport drivers in Catanduanes.
Strikers were also present in Iloilo City, where a strike center was manned by members of Piston, Anakbayan and the Kabataan Party-list, and local drivers.
In Davao no transportation-related strike took place, but Bayan led allied organizations and 500 people in marching in Davao City to call for the resumption of peace talks between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front.
Government officials in Metro Manila, including from city governments, the Departments of Education and Transportation, and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) preempted the worsening of the strike by announcing the suspension of classes at all levels.
Acting MMDA Chairman Thomas Orbos said his agency already announced last Sunday the number-coding scheme for PUVs was lifted to minimize the adverse effect on vehicle owners. He said over 100 vehicles from private and government agencies were deployed on Monday for stranded passengers. There were also shuttles provided by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) for commuters, but these seemed insufficient to assist members of the riding public who walked several kilometers to reach their destination.
In Metro Cebu Perez said several jeepneys were still plying the usual routes of Mambaling, Bulacao and other parts in southern Cebu City.
Cebu has 11,000 jeepney units, but Perez could not confirm if 9,000 jeepney units joined the strike.
LTFRB-7 Director Ahmed Cuizon claimed only 20 percent of public transport in Metro Cebu was affected, mostly in Lapu-Lapu City and some parts of Mandaue City, from 7 to 8 a.m. He said the striking vehicles were immediately augmented by LTFRB buses with special permits, and other government buses and vehicles.
In Mandaue City Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue operation chief Glen Antigua said 15 percent of public transportation affected in the city. He said 15 vehicles were deployed by the city government to ferry stranded passengers.
Camarines Norte police provincial director Senior Supt. Rodolfo Dimad said classes in all levels were not suspended. He identified the towns of Daet, Santa Elena, Labo and Vinzons as those that joined the transport strike. The strikers were mostly Piston members, he said.
The government also needs to create an efficient rail system in addressing the country’s transport woes, according to the former Deputy Mayor and Central District Mayor of Madrid, Spain.
Pedro Ortiz, who is currently serving as a Senior Metropolitan Consultant at the World Bank, said in a presentation last year that Metro Manila’s semicircular road networks have caused traffic to worsen.
“Making circles in the end creates congestion because there’s a barrier between the edge of the circle and the inside of a circle. The radials then are pulling down cars into the center,” Ortiz told the BusinessMirror after his presentation. “You should open up that circular system into a linear [system], but the most important is using the rail tracks to produce a modern rail system.”
Based on the 2010 Census, Metro Manila is home to nearly 12 million Filipinos. Ortiz said if Metro Manila increases its population by 5 percent every year, the metropolis can double in size every 14 years.
And if the residents in Metro Manila continue buying cars, it will just make it more crowded and could reach the car-saturation point of eight cars for every 10 people.
“If Manila is at the level of two cars every 10 people, you must realize that you will have four times more cars on the streets, four times more cars. But if Manila is growing in population, you have to multiply that, as well,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz said rail systems not only take advantage of Metro Manila’s naturally linear landscape, but also provide a good alternative for motorists to not buy cars or not use them every day.
He said rail systems in cities abroad, like New York and Mumbai, are used by 8 million people. This helps ease the traffic on the streets.
This will be significant for cities like Metro Manila, which has experienced a rapid increase in motorization.
“The problem with the Philippines as in many other countries is that motorization is going very fast. You must know that the saturation point of motorization is eight cars every 10 people; seven-to-eight cars every 10 people. And when you reach that level, you don’t buy more cars, you just buy cars to substitute the old ones,” Ortiz said.
Ang said heavy vehicular traffic in the megacity of 14 million Filipinos is a threat to the goal of increasing labor productivity in the country. This is just one of the many economic losses attributed to traffic.
In 2014 the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) estimated that Metro Manila’s traffic costs could balloon to P6 billion a day by 2030.
Jica said this 2.5 times the current estimate of P2.4 billion a day. The study also stated that without intervention, traffic demand could increase by 13 percent in less than two decades. This also means that households need to spend no less than 20 percent of their monthly household income for transport.
To be continued
(Lorenz S. Marasigan, Cai U. Ordinario, Manuel Cayon, Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco, Henry Empeño, Charles Pepito, Manly U. Ugalde)
Image credits: Nonie Reyes