Patricia Tan (Introduction and Conclusion)

Mig Brosoto (Body 1), Yohan Cortez (Body 2), Sean Co (Body 3)

GEPCOMM - A54

THS: Traffic congestion in Metro Manila is a daily form of inconvenience among students and

workers therefore, urbanization other areas, improvement of railway system and carpooling can

be a step to lessen the congestion.

Metro Manila Commuters and motorist spend more than an hour, on average, in traffic

every day. Placing the Philippines’ Capital Region, the third worst traffic in southeast Asia

according to the study of Boston Consulting Group (Rappler,2017). As a result, thousands of

wage earners and informal workers, were severely affected and displaced by traffic congestion

(Trade union of the Philippines, 2017). Therefore, traffic congestion somewhat ruins the errands

of the people every day. According to the study of Teruel, Galilo , Ediezca, Calauto and Paluto

in 2016 ,Congestion leads to workers and students arriving late, commuting hassles,

frustration/stress, and lack of personal time. Lack of Infrastructure is often cited as the primary

cause of traffic congestion in Metro Manila, but the inadequacy is brought about by other factors.

One of this is the low interest and easy access credit that enabled more Filipinos to buy cars

(Villar, 2017). In the philippines the downpayment for a car is cheaper compared to other

countries that’s why Filipinos are attracted to buy a car. Nowadays, it is not only a want of the

people, but it is a need. Commuting is a very hassle thing for Filipinos because of the heat and

crowed public transportation.

 One of the immediate solutions that the Philippines could use against the heavy traffic in

Metro Manila is carpooling. Instead of riding alone, it would be a better option to ride with other

passengers who are headed to the same destination. On September 26, 2018, a group of

Government officials and resource persons conducted a panel regarding the issue of heavy traffic

along Metro Manila. The panel discussed that at the time being, given the resources and the

amount of time, the only solutions that the country could really rely on, are short term solutions.

In the list of the traffic authority’s short term solutions, carpooling tops the list (Santos, 2018).

Carpooling provides advantages not only contributing to traffic flow; it also gives solo riders a

better deal. Riding with other passengers means splitting the fare, which conveys that solo riders

would be able to save more money. Other than being able to save money, riders could also meet

new people who they could be friends with, along their trip going to work, school, etc (Garcia as

cited in Santos, 2018). For the community, one big benefit of carpooling is that it reduces traffic

congestion and air pollution (Dewan and Ahmad, 2007). These advantages stated provides a

more valid explanation of why solo riders must prefer to carpool.

“Uber”, one of the most used ridesharing apps in the Philippines, has opened carpool

services for people as an option. This service of Uber is called Uber pool, and has been available

in the Philippines since the year 2016. It gives the option of sharing a ride with another solo rider

who is headed to the same place. Uber pool can help decongest roads by enabling fewer cars on

the road complete more trips (Brown as cited in “Uber pool service”, 2015). Constructing more

public transport such as transits are still the obvious better solution, however building those will

take years. The solution that Uber pool provides for the society is one that is immediate and

won’t take much time (Cua as cited in Lopez, 2016). Based on Uber’s data upon the release of
Uber pool in its first two months, with 121,000 participating riders, approximately 1.5 million

kilometers of travel was saved. If converted, around 75,000 liters of fuel was conserved and the

emission of 175 metric tons of carbon dioxide was prevented (Lopez, 2016). By looking at it in a

bigger picture, Uber pool could actually be a stepping stone to solve traffic in Metro Manila.

Currently in 2018, there are now more apps aside from Uber offering carpooling services

(Grab, Wunder, U-Hop, etc). The increase in carpooling apps over the years is proof that people

who resort to carpooling are getting bigger as time goes by. The key to lessening the heavy

traffic in Metro Manila is by persuading people to commute, preferably by carpooling with other

riders. If people resort to ridesharing/carpooling, there would be fewer cars on the road which

means less congestion. Big companies and corporations administering transportation and

commute services like Uber and Grab need to push more into promoting their carpool services.

These companies should show the advantages carpooling could provide to the society and state

the perks that the people could receive by resorting to carpooling. Trip lengths and commute cost

burden are the top major influences that lead people to carpooling (Teal, 1987). These influences

could be utilized by companies and corporations to further push carpooling as a more preferred

mode of transportation. Aside from promoting carpool services, companies and corporations

under this scope should also try cooperating with the Government to construct a wider scale and

a more efficient carpool system. But in the end, the success of this type of solution will depend

on whether individuals and institutions support the process (Dewan and Ahmad, 2007). It would

depend heavily on whether the people of the community are willing to act in order to push

through against the heavy traffic in Metro Manila.

 In addition, Geography has a pivotal role in determining an area’s traffic situation, one of

the most important studies that geographers are conducting revolve around the streets and

transportation systems (Tan, 2013). Not only does geography play a significant role in

determining the traffic situation in an area, it also dictates how fast a vehicle can travel from

point A to point B. Since motorization has been developing at a faster pace, existing road

networks are barely enough to cover all vehicles resulting in congestion (Black, 2003). In line

with this, the most viable solution in decongesting traffic is by developing more road works in

Metro Manila. Likewise according to an article by Economist, the perfect transport plan will

bring an end to the heavy traffic situation in Metro Manila (Economist, 2016). However,

planning road maps and engineering freeways are the easy parts as it was never the problem in

the first place. In addition to this, based on the report by world bank, metro manila holds 56%

percent of the total urban land development and has the urban population percentage of 70%

(Padilla, 2015). As a result, urban developers are having a hard time initiating the road plans they

have proposed since the country is too centralized. Another reason why the engineers are having

a hard time is bIn order to solve the traffic in Metro Manila, it is recommended that urbanization

is spread not only in the metropolis but also in the areas surrounding it, and other rural areas in

Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Creating urban centers in other areas of the country will

depopulate the blooming demography of Metro Manila which in turn, will decongest the traffic

in the metropolis.

Lastly, the heavy traffic situation in Metro Manila may be solved or eased by improving

the current railway system. Currently, there are existing railways that pass through Metro Manila

which help ease the heavy traffic situation in it. These railways are composed of the Light Rail
Transit (LRT) lines 1 and 2, the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) line 3, and the Philippine National

Railways (PNR). According to Corrales (2015), an average of 1.5 million commuters take the

LRT lines 1 and 2, and the MRT line 3 everyday. This means that even if a great number of

people are already commuting through the use of the railways on a daily basis, it is not enough to

decongest the traffic in Metro Manila. Additionally, there are plans to build a subway that would

pass through Metro Manila as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” program

which is foreseen to be fully functional by 2025 (Fenol, 2018). Having this project completed

could be of great help to further ease the heavy traffic situation in Metro Manila.

Despite these existing solutions, it still has its inefficiencies. It is possible that prices for

the LRT, MRT, and PNR are too costly for some commuters, especially those who are students

and/or minimum wage earners, so they opt to use private vehicles instead. Furthermore, the

construction for the planned subway will only be starting by the end of 2018 (Tugade as cited in

Placido, 2018). Having this, the construction of this subway may not assure that the traffic

situation in Metro Manila will ease up by 2025. This is due to possible unforeseen events such as

natural disasters or accidents during the construction of the subway which may cause delays.

Although the existing railways already serve a large number of commuters on a daily

basis, traffic in Metro Manila remains to be a major problem. With this, it is suggested that

Senate Bill No. 203 of the 16th Congress of the Philippines, filed by Senator Juan Edgardo

"Sonny" M. Angara, be passed as a law as a way to improve the current transport system. This

bill aims to provide students with a 20-percent price reduction on public land, water, and air

transportation (Ager, 2015). The bill states that the 20-percent price reduction shall be given to

students from elementary to collegiate level when they show their school Identification Cards
(IDs) and applies to weekdays, weekends, and holidays (Angara, 2018, pp. 1-2, sec. 4). By

having this bill passed as a law, it may attract more people (specifically students) to take public

transportation such as the railways instead of taking private vehicles. Furthermore, the student

discounts may also apply to the future Metro Manila subway. This may result to be an

improvement to the current railway system as there would be lower costs and could be more

convenient compared to the costs and time spent when taking private vehicles. As a result, it may

possibly help ease the heavy traffic situation in Metro Manila even further.

Traffic congestion in Metro Manila is a daily form of inconvenience among students and

workers therefore, urbanization other areas, improvement of railway system and carpooling can

be a step to lessen the congestion. As it would also be a way to reduce the crowd in every public

transportation and in this way Filipinos would be encouraged more to commute.

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