[sustran] Our traffic mess costs - Metro Manila

[Eric Britton]

Our traffic mess costs P140B




By RENE Q. BAS

Sunday Times Editor 

Our traffic mess costs us, says the NGO Citizens’ Traffic Watch, echoing a World
Bank-commissioned study many years ago, more than P15-billion pesos yearly. But
the Department of Transportation and Communication gives a higher figure of P140
billion, counting direct and indirect economic losses due to traffic congestion.
Some, including this writer, believe it’s much more than P140 billion. 

The National Center for Transportation Studies’ Professors Ricardo Sigua and
Noriel Tiglao six years ago wrote a paper on the "Economic Impact of Traffic
Congestion in Metro Manila." They based their computations on a survey that was
conducted by the Metro Manila Urban Integration Study, or MMUTIS, which up to
now is the most comprehensive guide used by transport planners who have not lost
the hope that a proper master plan for an integrated Metro Manila vehicular
traffic system could still be adopted and made to work. The survey involved
58,250 households in Metro Manila and Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Bulacan. 

One hundred billion pesos was the estimate Sigua and Tiglao came up with of the
economic cost of traffic congestion in the metropolis. They factored in the
value of time lost by workers as well as managers and the additional expenses
for fuel and maintenance of vehicles. Tiglao thought P100 billion was a
conservative figure. He and Sigua did not factor in the health and environmental
costs and foreign investments lost. 

At that time, the cost of gasoline per liter was less than half of today’s
P45-plus per liter. So I am confident that the economic cost of trip delays
caused by traffic congestion is much more than the DOTC’s P140-billion figure. 

The "direct and indirect economic losses" include these costs to the economy of
losses in everything affected by traffic jams and accidents caused by our
traffic mess: 

*	• The cost of fuel wasted on stop-and-go and snail-paced traffic on EDSA
and other major roads of Metro Manila (and major cities like Cebu). 
*	• The lost productivity of workers and managers stuck in traffic instead
of doing their work at their desks and their factories or shops. 
*	• The wages and salaries of larger than necessary complements of police
officers and traffic aides doing duty in the most problematic areas at rush
hours. 
*	• The loss of US-dollar business that happens when a traffic jam makes
Filipino entrepreneurs fail to arrive on time for appointments with their
foreign buyers. 
*	• The cost of medicine for those who, exposed to long hours of the
toxic-air commute in jeeps and buses, come down with severe colds, allergies and
asthma attacks and other lung diseases. 
*	• The loss of the good health of our schoolchildren subjected to
motor-traffic pollution. 
*	• The increased wear and tear of motor vehicles traveling at low gear
most of the time. 
*	• The increased occurrence of accidents and fights brought on by frayed
nerves and irritable dispositions caused by traffic jams, traffic mismanagement
and bad drivers (who, we must not forget, are as blameful as anybody for our
traffic mess). 

"While the road accident situation is slowly improving in the high-income
industrialized countries," says Tiglao, "most developing countries such as the
Philippines face a worsening situation. The continuous socioeconomic growth over
the years is causing increasing demand for transport service including road
transport. With the number of vehicles on the road growing rapidly, more road
conflicts develop vis-à-vis traffic accidents. 

Engineering vs. accidents 

"Most of these accidents result from human error and carelessness on the part of
the drivers or pedestrians. However, the probability of occurrence, and its
severity, can often be reduced by applying proper traffic-control devices, and
good roadway design features. The success or failure of such control devices and
design specifications, however, depends extensively on the analysis of traffic
accident records at specific locations. It has long been recognized that the
most effective means toward accident reduction lies in a systematic and
scientific approach based on the use of accurate and reliable traffic accident
data. But the quantity of data important for the analysis is not always
sufficient 

"Much of the accident information available in police files is all too often
incomplete and therefore has not been used to the fullest extent. In addition,
records are also needed to provide facts to guide programs including
enforcement, education, maintenance, vehicle inspection, emergency medical
services, and engineering to improve streets and highways." 

In 2005 a total of 11,425 traffic accidents occurred, the PNP’s Traffic
Management Group records. In the first two months of 2006, there were 1,364
vehicular accidents, many of these with fatalities. 

Motorcycle accidents 

Motorcycles have increasingly figured in the accident rate. Last year, 2,798 or
24 percent of all motor-vehicle accidents involved motorcycles. In Metro Manila
alone, 250 persons died from motorcycle accidents over the last three years, or
an average of 83 fatalities a year. 

A total of 8,968 nonfatal injuries caused by motor vehicle accidents were
recorded over the last three years, or an average of 2,989 injuries a year. 

Bothered by these data, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel has filed a bill requiring the
national and local governments to designate an appropriate motorcycle lane on
major roads. 

A gigantic economic loss hits the whole nation because many foreign investors
are turned off by our traffic mess. 

Our traffic congestion, with its concomitant economic and health hazards, has
been mentioned time and again in country reports written by foreign-bank
economists for their clients. The foreign chambers in the Philippines last year
issued a joint statement that brought up the terrible state of traffic in Metro
Manila as a problem they would like to see dramatically improved. 

The most recent document giving this message comes to us from the Japanese. 

Last January the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry publicized the
findings of a "Comparative Study of the Climate of Investment Between the
Philippines and Thailand." The comments about our traffic condition are in the
section on infrastructure.

Bangkok beats Manila 

Many Filipinos, guided by news they read 10 years ago about the horrible Bangkok
traffic, will learn to be more accurate when they read what the Japanese have to
say. 

"Infrastructure is the most important factor when foreign companies operating in
Southeast Asia evaluate a country’s environment of investment. A recent survey
of Japanese companies in the region showed a general evaluation that Thailand is
well ahead of the Philippines in the development of electric power, water and
sewage system, telecommunications, roads and ports. In our comparative study,
too, the Philippines is way behind Thailand in almost all vital infrastructures
such as roads, ports, airports and electricity, which are indispensable to
production and transportation operations of foreign investors. 

"The following examples may highlight the difference in infrastructure
development of the two countries: 

"1. Share of investment in infrastructure in GDP: 

"Thailand has been spending five to six percent of its GDP to develop
infrastructure, while in the Philippines, investment in infrastructure has been
two to three percent of its GDP. 

"2. Development of tollways and pavement of national roads: 

"In Thailand, tollways extend as long as 333km. In the Philippines, tollway
extension is only 146km. Ninety-eight percent of national roads are being paved
in Thailand; in the Philippines, only 70 percent of its national roads are
paved." 

The study covers all the items under the heading "infrastructure" in all of
which the Philippines pales by comparison and finally delivers this judgment
about the traffic situation here. 

Projects barely moving 

"In terms of mass transit in the National Capital Region, 700,000 people use the
system in Bangkok daily while in Metro Manila, authorities report 800,000
passengers a day. In Bangkok, projects to extend its subway and sky train
systems are clearly moving and the daily load of passengers of its mass transit
system will likely surpass that of Metro Manila as projects to extend mass
transit system here are barely moving. 

"As shown in the list of examples above, it may be difficult to expect the
Philippines to catch up with Thailand in infrastructure development in a short
time span. Nevertheless, there are some areas of infrastructure development that
the Philippines can expeditiously implement. The JCCIPI would like to recommend
the following areas for expeditious implementation in the Philippines. We would
also like to emphasize that local and foreign business communities, including
JCCIPI, continue to watch if the government of the Philippines commits itself to
infrastructure development and to the speed of its implementation."




 

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  <http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/imgs/blank.gif> 	
 <http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=47891> Do they really want
to solve the problem? 
By The Manila Times Research Staff 

In March 1996, as the efforts to solve the traffic mess intensified, the Metro
Manila Urban Transportation Integration Study was launched with technical
assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Its basic goal then
as now is to set up a firmly founded and constantly updated database. 

The government and its authors hoped that the study’s well of information would
then serve as the guide of all the government agencies (MMDA, DOTC, DPWH,
PNP-TMG, LTO, LTFRB, etc.) and private-sector companies concerned with
traffic-congestion relief to draw up a master plan to be carried out until 2015
(from which time a new plan for the succeeding decade would again be devised). 
The Manila Times (8/20/2006 12:34:18 AM) 	

  _____  

 <http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=47890> LRT and MRT: Doing
what they do well 
By Katrice R. Jalbuena
The Manila Times 

The total population of Metro Manila and environs is about 15 million. By 2010
Metro Manila’s population will reach 11.3 million and its surrounding areas,
11.4 million, bringing the total population of the metropolis to 22.7 million. 

This trend in urbanization—urban planners immediately saw in the
eighties—requires mass-transit trains. 
The Manila Times (8/20/2006 12:34:09 AM) 	

  _____  

 <http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=47889> MMDA: Unwelcome
do-gooder 
By Cris Malifier Reyes
The Manila TImes 

Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metro Manila Development Authority—by law—is the
point man in solving the Metro Manila traffic mess. Unfortunately, he is often
challenged in turf battles by some mayors of the cities of the National Capital
Region. 

Fernando has been an innovative and hard-working antitraffic-mess activist.
Expectedly, some of his ideas have not gone down well with populists and the
leftists. But he is also unceasingly criticized—the word should be “berated”—by
some Metro Manila mayors. 

The law creating the MMDA makes him overseer and doer of the things that are
normally the work of mayors and the police: traffic management, garbage
management, flood control, the metropolis’ beautification and some other areas
of work. 
The Manila Times (8/20/2006 12:33:52 AM) 	

  _____  

 <http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=47888> Why Pinoys make lousy
drivers 
In the old days the folks called it “abilidad,” the ability to put one over a
person or the government. Being “wais” (wise) enabled one to circumvent the
rules or the law. The current word is “palusot,” which means the same thing:
getting ahead at somebody’s expense or abbreviating the rules to achieve your
goal. 
The Manila Times (8/20/2006 12:20:22 AM) 	

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