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Government Analytics, Local Government

Smart transport system for Manila?

By Robin Hicks | 22 November 2010

Metro Manila is working on a proposal for an intelligent transport system that it hopes will help end the Philippine capital’s “traffic nightmare” by enabling drivers to receive information on accidents, road works, and alternative routes.

An initial study of traffic management implementations overseas, such as in the Netherlands and Singapore, is underway in consultation with IBM, which has been promoting its traffic management systems as part of its ‘smart cities’ offering.

IBM has been working with local authorities in Stockholm, Singapore, Dublin and Brisbane on systems such as traffic prediction tools, which use Business Analytics, smart cards and congestion charging.

The project, led by the Chief Information Officers Forum Inc., will involve the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Metro Manila Development Authority, the Philippine National Police and two other agencies.

“A big challenge is getting agencies to work together on this,” said CIOF President George Kintanar. “We are looking at how other cities have moved ahead with decongestion projects, and have been talking to IBM about the right traffic management solution for Manila.”

The latest traffic management systems enable drivers to receive information on accidents, road works, and alternative routes – on public transport as well as roads - on their smart phones from local telco providers. Data from drivers’ smart phones is in turn used by traffic controllers to gauge road conditions and divert traffic if necessary.

Kintanar said he was keen to follow a public private partnership model with local telco operators.

Manila’s traffic nightmare

Heavy traffic is a daily occurrence in Metro Manila, particularly along the arterial roads that connect its 16 cities and population of 20 million. The average road trip in Metro Manila averages at around six kilometers per hour.

In an interview with FutureGov Asia Pacific earlier this year, Manila city Mayor Alfredo Lim voiced his frustration at his capital’s “traffic nightmare”, which he said is caused by buses from the provinces, narrow roads built in the Spanish colonial times, and a rise in new vehicles on the road.

The MMDA has tried numerous ways of curbing traffic, such as the Uniform Vehicular Volume Reduction Scheme, where vehicles with plate numbers that end in different digits are banned from traveling on certain days, and restrictions on the lanes public utility buses are permitted to use.

The introduction by the MMDA of a number-coding system for PUBs prompted a strike by the Integrated Metro Bus Operators Association last week (15th November 2010). Commuters were left stranded on highways as PUBs refused to pick them up in protest of the new system.

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