June 30, 2013
Manila,
Philippines –
An exhaustive, two (2)-year effort to gather and organize
previously-unavailable data on buses, jeepneys, and trains in Metro Manila has
been completed by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC),
now making it possible for commuters to plan their trips more efficiently and
conveniently.
The
initiative of building the Philippine Transit Information Service (PTIS) began
in 2011, at a time when the Transport agency could not immediately provide
certain essential information to commuters, such as the best route to take at a
particular time, as well as the travel times involved.
“The
need to gather reliable data at that time in order to deliver convenient and
efficient services to the public was immediately recognized and pursued,” explained
DOTC spokesperson Migs Sagcal.
Using
Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, the DOTC gathered data on more than
nine hundred (900) bus, train, and jeepney routes. It also collected
useful information such as the fares and amounts of time required to take these
various modes of transport.
Following
this, the data was organized and analyzed by the DOTC along with other
concerned offices such as the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA),
the Land Transportation Franchising & Regulatory Board (LTFRB), the Light
Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), and the Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC).
As a
result, it will now be possible to find out what a commuter’s options are to
get from one point to another in Metro Manila, what types of transportation and
how many transfers will be involved, and how much money and time each option
will require.
“Our
next step is to make the PTIS accessible to the public. The intention has
always been to use modern technology in empowering people to make well-informed
decisions on their commute,” added Sagcal.
The two
(2)-year data gathering and analysis effort was made possible by a grant from
the World Bank, which also funded a similar project of the Cebu City Government
to make its traffic management efforts more advanced.
The
DOTC, MMDA, and the Cebu City Government will be hosting a three month-long
competition called the Philippine Transit App Challenge along with other
government agencies beginning this month, where individuals and groups mainly
from the Information Technology (IT) industry will compete to develop
applications using the PTIS database, which the public may then use to choose
their best routes at any given time.