The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), in an innovative collaboration with SafeTravelPH Mobility Innovations Organization Inc. (SafeTravelPH), successfully conducted a simulation activity in Bacolod City from June 26-28, 2023. This groundbreaking exercise aimed to validate the routes and fleet sizes for the city's Local Public Transport Route Plan (LPTRP), which had been officially approved and issued with a Notice of Compliance in June 2020.
Utilizing the SafeTravelPH mobile application, the multisectoral team that includes various offices of the City Government of Bacolod gathered critical data on the 24 approved LPTRP routes. This data included PUV travel and ridership, boarding and alighting passengers recording and geotagging via the SafeTravelPH app, providing information about passenger flows and transport demand across different parts of the city.
New approaches in local transport planning
The simulation exercise underscored the importance of participatory action research (PAR) as a method to enhance local public transport planning. It demonstrated how collaborative efforts among diverse stakeholders – including national and local government bodies, local public transport operators, and academic partners – can evaluate the reasonableness and consistency of LPTRPs.
The SafeTravelPH app played a pivotal role in gathering precise data on various metrics such as travel times, dwelling times, turn-around times, boarding/alighting events, and passenger ridership. This mobile crowdsourcing app's success was largely due to the unwavering support and cooperation from all stakeholders involved most especially the drivers and operators.
A significant takeaway from this exercise is the need for network-level analysis of public transport operations, a departure or upgrade to the current route-based estimation work by existing government guidelines, particularly in the context of fleet size determination. The development of a comprehensive Public Transport (PT) assignment model is now seen as a feasible goal, leveraging readily available data from past transport planning studies and actual field traffic surveys for model calibration.
This initiative has highlighted the need to develop better tools that can assist decision-makers in making evidence-based decisions, paving the way for more informed and efficient public transport planning and operations. As SafeTravelPH continues its journey towards enhancing urban mobility, this successful simulation in Bacolod City serves as a beacon for other cities in the Philippines. It is a model for the potential transformation that technology, collaborative action, and data-driven approaches can bring to public transportation systems. Stay updated with our latest ventures in public transport innovation by following our blog and news updates at SafeTravelPH.
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