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Category Archives: Public Transport
Quezon City’s electric buses
While Quezon City rolled out its new electric buses, I have not seen them along my typical commutes that takes me to C5, particularly and mainly along Katipunan Avenue. Most of these buses are probably deployed along the other routes served by the Q City buses. So I took this snapshot of one that I saw not in QC but along Ortigas Avenue Extension in Pasig City. Maybe it was en route to the end station/terminal at Bridgetown, which is at its border with Pasig?
One of Quezon City’s electric buses
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Article share: What Is Good Transit?
Here’s an article share on transit and what should be the attributes of a good transit system:
Source: What Is Good Transit?
To derive the main points from the article:
- Good transit is frequent
- Good transit is reliable
- Good transit is (reasonably) fast
- Good transit feels safe
- Good transit is equitable by nature
This is a good read whether you’re a regular commuter taking public transportation or perhaps one looking into topics for research or advocacy.
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First impressions of In Drive
There’s another TNVS service operating and competing with Grab. I heard about In-Drive from friends who regularly take Grab when they are in a hurry and opt out of their usual public transport options. They relate that In-Drive was cheaper than Grab based on their most recent bookings. They also said it was easy to book a ride with In-Drive.
And so I downloaded the app and finally had an opportunity to try them as I traveled between UP Diliman and Ortigas Center. I was able to book a ride immediately and it was less expensive compared to Grab. But that was just one booking so I had to try it another time. On my return trip, the same happened and I was able to get the same result with a cheaper booking than Grab.
One time I had to travel home from my office in UP after my evening class, I decided to try this again. Here are the screenshots for my evening ride. The first image is for Grab and the second for In Drive. The routes indicated in the maps are the same. Noticeably different are the estimated travel times (73 minutes for Grab vs. 64 minutes for In Drive) and fares (at least 556 pesos for Grab vs. 472 pesos for In Drive). The choice here was easy – In Drive.
My experiences so far indicate that In Drive was indeed cheaper than Grab. For the last example, it also indicated a shorter travel time. But that’s just me and a few bookings. It is worth studying or exploring further if indeed In Drive, in general, provides for less expensive travel. Other circumstances or conditions can be considered including the origins and destinations for the bookings, the time of day or day of the week, and so on. These are necessary to really have an objective and conclusive comparison of the two.
There’s another option that’s been getting some buzz recently among my friends and students. A taxi company with a full electric car fleet is also now available and competing with the TNVS companies. I will write about Green GSM very soon!
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Railways construction progress in Luzon
I’m currently attending the Philippine Railway Conference. The presentations so far have been informative especially about the progress of rail projects in the country. Most if not all of these projects are in Luzon, which includes Metro Manila. Here are the progress of work as shown in the photos of the slides I took during the plenary sessions this morning.
Based on the presentations, these railways currently under construction will be ready or partially operational by 2027. What do you think about the progress of work?
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Needed: MMDA Transport Authority similar to Transport for London
I am sharing this article from Business World about the idea (or is it already a proposal) for an MMDA Transport Authority. I seem to recall there were already proposals for something like this but I have to check for references and sources. In the meantime, I am content with sharing the following:
On Nov. 11, 1999, the British Parliament established the Greater London Authority. Prior to that, there was no single entity managing the entirety of London. The governance of the city was fragmented, and responsibilities for planning, transport, and other city-wide matters were divided between local boroughs and national authorities. The Greater London Authority was established […]
Source: Needed: MMDA Transport Authority similar to Transport for London
Traffic congestion along EDSA
I’ve taken some photos of EDSA traffic as well as the EDSA Carousel buses. Here are the more recent EDSA photos I took as I traveled from Makati to Quezon City after serving as a panelist in the Energy Transitions Dialogue last Wednesday.
I took this photo as we passed Guadalupe. I like this in the sense that it shows the clear ROW for the EDSA Carousel buses. One wonders why most of these motorists would prefer to drive their vehicles rather than take the bus or the MRT.
You can see in the photo that EDSA’s northbound side is clogged as far as the eye could see. If you check the image under the MRT bridge, it shows the southbound side was also congested. These photos were taken around 4 PM so this was still an hour before most people would be going home from work.
I mentioned in my comments at the panel that one consequence of giving number coding exemption to electric and hybrid vehicles is that this further diminishes the effectiveness (is it still effective?) of the MMDA’s number coding scheme. I don’t have the stats of how many EV’s and hybrids are registered and running in Metro Manila. Those numbers combined with actual counts will tell us how they are impacting traffic. That would be a nice topic for a paper. 🙂
The photos pretty much describe the transport situation in Metro Manila. Many of our major cities will be heading this way unless they improve their public transportation fast. If they do, then public transport mode share will be sustained if not increased. Metro Manila’s is already being eroded by inefficient public transport, motorcycles (including taxis) and perhaps unintentionally, electric and hybrid vehicles.
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inDrive- A cheaper alternative to Grab?
Friends have been sharing that a new player in the TNVS business is less expensive than Grab. And yet they have comparable vehicles and drivers. They are also supposed to be easier to book. I’ve tried them a few times so far but forget to get screencaps to show the difference between the new players and Grab.
Of course, I ended up booking inDrive as it was cheaper by about 60 pesos for a standard car. I will continue taking screen caps for succeeding rides I will be taking in the future.
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Competition for Grab?
Friends have been talking about the two new options that they say should rival and compete with Grab. These are another ride hail company and, interestingly, a taxi company. That ride hail company is In Drive and the taxi company is Green GSM.
Green GSM vehicle dashboard showing the taxi meter details
The observation and consensus are that either is cheaper than Grab. My personal experience is that they are cheaper than Grab and substantially so. What does this mean? Probably that more people will eventually discover and experience the same and Grab’s ridership will decline. By how much? We don’t know that yet. What we know is that Grab’s most significant competition now are the motorcycle taxis like Angkas and Joyride. Move It is Grab’s response to the other two after it was prevented by government to compete directly with the two. More details in future posts this September.
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Is it possible to have zero traffic deaths in a year?
Is it possible to have zero traffic deaths in a year? Is it even probable? As it turns out, yes. Here’s an article on what Helsinki did in order to make this a reality:
Andrei, M. (August 1, 2025) “Helsinki went a full year without a traffic death. How did they do it?” ZME Science, https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/helsinki-went-a-full-year-without-a-traffic-death-how-did-they-do-it/ [Last accessed: 8/19/2025]
To quote from the article:
“A lot of factors contributed to this, but speed limits are one of the most important,” said Roni Utriainen, a traffic engineer with the city’s Urban Environment Division.
More than half of Helsinki’s streets have a speed limit of 30 km/h (approximately 20 mph). Half a century ago, the city barely had half of its area with a 50 km/h limit (30 mph). They gradually worked to reduce the speed limit, especially around schools and kindergartens.
Smarter street design also played a key role. Pedestrian and cycling infrastructure was prioritized for upgrades in recent years. More and more people started using public transit or bikes, or just walking. Substantial investments also made public transit more efficient and reliable.“Public transport in Helsinki is excellent, which reduces car use, and with it, the number of serious accidents,” Utriainen noted.
Another key component was bringing the police on board. Helsinki introduced automated traffic cameras and enforcement systems, which also helped bring down reckless driving.”
Examples of congestion pricing as applied in major cities
Here is a quick share of an article on cities that have been successful with congestion pricing:
Zukowski, D. (August 8, 2025) “5 cities with congestion pricing,” Smart Cities Dive, https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/5-cities-with-congestion-pricing/756987/ [Last accessed: 8/15/2025]
Quoting from the article:
“As cities around the world continue to see increased traffic delays, some have implemented congestion pricing programs to ease gridlock. Congestion pricing acts as a market-based mechanism: increasing the cost to drive in certain areas may encourage drivers to take alternate means of transport or travel at different times. Toll revenues can go to improving roadways and public transit or reducing other vehicle-related taxes.”
Indeed congestion pricing has been around and yet few cities have actually implemented congestion pricing schemes and have had success with it. In the Philippines, the discussions are basically on and off or intermittent. I recall there were already mention of congestion pricing in Metro Manila transport studies back in the 1970s but nothing really came out of those. Fast forward to the present and Baguio City in the northern Philippines implemented their version of number coding, which was supposedly a prelude to some form of congestion pricing but apparently is more of a travel demand management (TDM) scheme along the lines of Metro Manila’s UVVRP. Will we have our own proof of concept sometime soon even for a smaller area or district in any Philippine city? That will also be dependent on whether our so-called leaders can engage their constituents in meaningful discussions on the benefits of congestion pricing.
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Caught (up) in traffic 