The studies of by SafeTravelPH researchers were accepted in the highly regarded Thredbo Conference, with the titles: "Digitally Enabled Collaborative Governance for Sustaining Bus Reforms on the EDSA Busway in Metro Manila" and "A Risk and ESG Approach to Assessing the Barriers to Modernization and Cooperative Formation in Informal Public Transportation: Case of Philippine Jeepney Sector". The conference will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from 29 September – 3 October 2024.
The Thredbo conference series for academics and transport industry workers "has garnered a formidable reputation for being the premier international forum dedicated to the analysis and debate of competition and ownership issues in land passenger transport. This influential forum attracts high quality participation and delivers a large portfolio of impressive material synthesising developments not only from developed economies but increasingly from developing economies."
The Edsa research will focus on the potential of collaboration and digital tools vis-a-vis the context and challenges of Edsa's bus operations. Historical efforts to enhance bus services and manage traffic have often faltered. Initiatives like the 1974 bus industry consolidation, aimed at creating efficient bus consortia, largely failed due to financial issues, competitive pressures, and operational problems, leading to the privatization of the Metro Manila Transit Corporation (MMTC) and a liberalized bus market. Recent efforts to improve traffic flow include the Organized Bus Route (OBR) system of 2003, the 2012 Bus Segregation Scheme, and a 2016 regulation limiting new provincial bus terminals on EDSA. The EDSA Busway, introduced in 2021 to augment the MRT3 during COVID-19, represents the latest attempt to improve bus services. The paper explores the development of a digital collaborative platform for the EDSA Busway, utilizing Design Thinking workshops, participatory action research, and the creation of a digital twin to optimize service through better demand-supply matching, aiming to enhance stakeholder collaboration and system management.
Meanwhile, the study on transport cooperatives, the main actors in the public transport modernization program (PTMP) of the government, uses the lens of Environment, Sustainability, and Governance (ESG) for an exposure and risk management framework to craft a risk management approach in addressing known barriers for prioritization of programs for the PUVMP, taking the perspectives of the transport service entities and financial institutions. This would inform financing, policy making and program implementation. We gather empirical data on ESG risk factors and financial performance from a sample (peer group) of paratransit operators. In particular, SafeTravelPH will gather data on: (1) environmental risks and practices, (2) labor management, (3) human capital, (4) service quality, and (5) corporate governance practices. The peer set covers three regions in the Philippines: Cordillera Administrative Region, Region 6, and Region 12. We determine the materiality of ESG risks through focused group discussions and consultation workshops with financial institutions and transport operators. The data and analysis are used for developing an expert system to assist key agencies and regulators to diagnose and assess performance of transport service entities.
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