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Article share: Picking it up as we go: how transportation agencies can learn from university research
Here’s a quick share of an article on the JTA Research Lab. This is a good example of how transportation agencies can learn from university research and also how they can collaborate or cooperate with academe to formulate solutions to various transport problems or issues.
JTA Research Lab has been created to identify critical transportation policy questions, and get academics to help solve them. Pencils sharpened? Nathaniel P. Ford explains…
Source: Picking it up as we go: how transportation agencies can learn from university research
Article share: on making more affordable neighborhoods
I’ve been commenting about how transportation cannot be isolated and the need to relate it to other factors such as housing or home location choice. The latter though is also affected by other factors as well that affect the affordability of homes near the city centers or CBDs where workplaces and schools are located. The result of course is sprawl or the encouragement of sprawl. Private companies take advantage of this or contribute to this ‘encouragement’ by developing land farther away from the center. Thus, for Metro Manila’s case, many people reside in the peripheral provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite. There are even those who choose to reside in Pampanga, Bataan and Batangas.
Kayatekin, C.S. and Sanmiguel, L.U. (April 16, 2024) ” ‘Urban form’ and the housing crisis: can streets and buildings make a neighborhood more affordable?” The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/urban-form-and-the-housing-crisis-can-streets-and-buildings-make-a-neighbourhood-more-affordable-224108 [Last accessed: 4/23/2024]
Quoting from the article:
“Our main finding was that the bottom-up districts we looked at had, overall, more small-scale apartments. The reason is simple: they had more small-scale buildings, built on small-scale plots. Once divided into apartments, this produces small apartments – homes in the bottom-up areas were 10% to 23.1% smaller than their top-down counterparts. This also made their real estate markets for small homes more competitive, and therefore more affordable.
However, our study showed there is nothing inherently magical about bottom-up areas. Their more intricate housing stock has little to do with the layout of streets and blocks, and a lot to do with how that land is built upon.
Plot size appears to be the deciding factor: the districts with greater numbers of small buildings built on small plots supported a denser and more affordable housing stock, regardless of whether they were top-down or bottom-up.
Older bottom-up areas seem to naturally lend themselves to having more small-scale plots. This is likely due to the incremental development of these areas, and the complex land ownership patterns that developed as a result. However, there is no reason why a top-down area cannot be designed to replicate these characteristics.”
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30th Conference of the Transportation Science Society of the Philippines
I am sharing here the First Call for Papers for the 30th Annual Conference of the Transportation Science Society of the Philippines (TSSP). The conference will be held in Iloilo City almost to the day of the last time it was held there in Sept. 12, 2014.
Information on past conferences may be found here: https://ncts.upd.edu.ph/tssp/conferences
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29th Annual Conference of the TSSP
The Transportation Science Society of the Philippines (TSSP) held its 29th Annual Conference today, December 7, 2023. Following is the program for the conference, which featured a panel discussion in the morning and technical sessions in the afternoon.
This was the first mainly face-to-face or in-person conference for the society since 2019. Previously, the conferences were online. As reported in the concluding part of the program, there were 84 participants who showed up at the venue while there were 30+ participants who were online via Zoom.
There were a couple of awards at the conference. These were the Best Paper Award and the Best Presentation Award. The Best Paper Award, based on the scores garnered from the blind review of the papers went to:
Maria Belen Vasquez and Jun T. Castro of UP Diliman for their paper entitled “Exploring Travel Patterns of Mobility of Care in Guiuan, Eastern Samar: Assessment of Gender and Sociodemographic Factors Using Spatial Analysis”
There was a tie for the Best Presentation Award. The two were Ms. Vasquez for the presentation of the paper on the Mobility of Care in Eastern Samar, and Mr. Erris Sancianco for the presentation of a paper he co-authored with Noriel Christopher Tiglao, Niki Jon Tolentino, Gillian Kate Hidalgo, Mary Joy Leanda, and Lester Jay Ollero entitled “Evaluating the Fuel Efficiency and Eco-Driving Potential of the EDSA Carousel using On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) and Mobile Crowdsourcing“. These papers will likely find their way to the Philippine Transportation Journal’s next issue.
Though it was not announced, a likely venue for the next conference will be Vigan, Ilocos Sur in the Northern Philippines. The likely host will be the University of Northern Philippines, the premier state university in that province. Previously and most recently, the conference was held in Cebu City (hosted by the University of San Jose-Recoletos) in 2019 and before that in Cagayan De Oro City (hosted by Xavier University) in 2018. TSSP was already organizing the 2020 conference when the pandemic struck and the country went on a lockdown. That conference was supposed to have been held in Baguio City in Benguet, and to be hosted by St. Louis University.
More information on the conference may soon be found at the TSSP’s official website: https://ncts.upd.edu.ph/tssp/
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On walking and running for health
Here is a quick share of an article on walking and running from the New York Times:
On micro mobility use of low-income people
We conclude September 2023 with another article share. This time it is about how low-income people use micro mobility.
Wilson, K. (September 20, 2023) “Study: How Low-Income People Really Use Micromobility,” StreetsBlog USA, https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/09/20/study-how-low-income-people-really-use-micromobility [Last accessed: 9/30/2023]
To quote from the article:
“Low-income people are using shared micromobility a lot like they use public transit, a new study finds — and researchers think cities should thoroughly embrace (and subsidize) the mode as part of the larger ecosystem of buses and trains.
Researchers at Monash University, using survey data from micromobility giant Lime users across all income levels in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, dug deeper into how low-income people uniquely use the company’s vehicles.
Participants in the Lime Access program, which grants discounts of around “70 or 80 percent” to riders who qualify, were significantly more likely to list essential reasons like “shopping” for groceries (35 percent) and “commuting” (31 percent) than non-Access riders, 11 and 21 percent of whom rode to complete errands or go to work, respectively.
The discount recipients were also highly unlikely to go use bikes and scooters for non-essential reasons like social outings (12 percent), “joy-riding” (9 percent) or exploring (2 percent), quashing the stereotype that all micromobility trips are spontaneously generated. And a whopping 44 perccent of their trips connected to a traditional transit ride, compared to just 23 percent of people who paid full price.ago
Perhaps the most surprising findings, though, were riders’ qualitative responses about what micromobility meant to them, and how their lives were made better by having access to affordable ways to get around without a car. Calvin Thigpen — director of policy research for Lime and co-author of the report — says he was particularly moved by the number of riders with invisible disabilities who said Lime Access helped them get where they needed to go, even when local transit schedules didn’t meet their needs.”
The study was made in the First World (i.e., US, Australia and New Zealand) so while the methodology is sound, the subjects (i.e., what they defined as low-income) are not quite the same as low-income people in low to medium-income countries. The poor in the latter countries have more difficult lives but then these countries may already have the modes for them to be mobile – paratransit. Motorized tricycles, pedicabs and motorcycle taxis have been operating in these countries way before the arrival (or definition) of micromobilities.
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A real battle of Katipunan – the search for a transportation solution
Is it obvious that I was alluding to the classic match-ups of the two major universities – Ateneo De Manila University and the University of the Philippines Diliman – that are located along Katipunan Avenue for the title of this article? That is deliberate on my part as there is a ‘real’ battle along Katipunan Avenue, and it does not involve sports.
Following is a recent article from the Philippine Collegian that reports on the current state of traffic along the corridor:
https://phkule.org/article/971/private-cars-mainly-to-blame-for-katipunan-traffic-transport-experts
I have written before and many times about transport and traffic along Katipunan Avenue. This road has been part of my daily commute since 1988 when I was admitted to UP Diliman as a B.S. Civil Engineering major. Back then Katipunan was not as wide as it is now, especially along the section between UP Diliman and the MWSS complex. That section only had 2 lanes then. What is not a wide center island with large, old acacia trees used to be the frontage of MWSS. So now you can probably imagine how much land was ceded by MWSS for road widening.
I also wanted to write about Katipunan in part as a sort of farewell to the former MMDA Chair and Marikina Mayor Bayani Fernando (BF), who recently passed away. Much of how Katipunan looks like and the traffic situation today can be traced to what transpired during his time at MMDA. I will refrain from writing about this and him for now. I am actually thinking of writing a series about BF and his time as Mayor in Marikina, as MMDA Chair, and his brief stint as DPWH Secretary. This short article will do for now.
Another look at home location choices
I recently shared an article showing the results of a survey conducted in the US. That survey appears to show that Americans prefer sprawl. But that may be due to many factors including political leanings that are actually mentioned in the article. I share another article that appears to be a reaction to the first one.
Lewyn, M. (August 14, 2023) “Do Americans Really Prefer Sprawl?” Planetizen, https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/125112-do-americans-really-prefer-sprawl?utm_source=newswire&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news-08142023&mc_cid=cd3b2e2ba5&mc_eid=9ccfe464b1 [Last accessed: 8/16/2023]
To quote from the article:
“Why do these surveys yield such drastically different results? The Pew survey notes that 3/4 of rural respondents favor the less walkable alternative; thus, that survey was apparently designed to include a representative sample of Americans, including rural Americans who typically do live in very spread-out environments. It seems to me quite natural that rural Americans would prefer rural lifestyles.
But once rural respondents are excluded, the balance between sprawl and walkable communities in the Pew survey becomes almost a toss-up. 57 percent of urban respondents refer houses with smaller yards and more walkability, and an almost-equal percentage of suburban respondents prefer the opposite.”
Again, I wonder what would be the outcomes if a similar survey were done in the Philippines. Will it reveal preferences for single detached homes rather than condos? Who will prefer the latter or the former? What could be the factors affecting home location choices in the Philippines? Cost is definitely a major factor. Commuting times perhaps and even commuting costs? But how do people weigh these factors? And what other influences are there to the decisions to purchase homes?
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On using Google Maps to determine the best route from the pollution perspective
I saw this article on digital maps (i.e., Google Maps) being used to determine the best route for traveling between an origin and destination on land. It is interesting because what we usually use as basis for selecting our routes (assuming we can do so since people taking public transport basically have fewer options due to PUVs having mostly fixed routes) are travel time, travel distance and travel cost. Here is the article discussing the addition of fuel efficiency and emissions to the criteria:
Calma, J. (July 25, 2023) “People are using Google Maps to cut down tailpipe pollution,” The Verge, https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/24/23805652/google-maps-fuel-efficient-routes-transportation-emissions [Last accessed: 7/29/2023]
To quote from the article:
“According to Google’s own analysis, many drivers are taking the path of least pollution in their cars. To calculate the tailpipe emissions that prevented, the company compared how much fuel Maps users likely consumed on the routes they drove to how much fuel they would have burned through had they taken the fastest route without its eco-friendly routing tool. The savings amounted to 1.2 million metric tons of avoided CO2 emissions between October 2021, when Google launched the tool, and December 2022.”
While this seems to be a first foray into the including of eco-friendly items in route choice, these items are already and actually included in many travel planners including those used by people selecting which flights to take. We probably just didn’t notice them before or the information were not explicitly stated or posted. Would this really affect or influence the way we travel like how it is reported in the article? Or do we continue to go with the usual and familiar routes?
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On one’s exposure to noise
Here is another article on noise, relating about how it affects our health (e.g., “noise can damage your heart as well as your hearing”). The article also includes reference to an app developed by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) – a sound level meter iOS app that utilizes sound energy, and has its accuracy verified in an acoustics lab.
To quote from the article something related to transport and traffic:
“As a general rule of thumb, the World Health Organization considers average road traffic noise levels above 53 decibels and average aircraft noise levels above 45 dB to be associated with adverse health outcomes, though their metrics are weighted slightly differently than the average on your screen.
Nighttime noise is considered particularly harmful because it can fragment your sleep and prompt a stress response, even if you don’t remember waking up. The W.H.O. has long recommended less than 30 dB of nighttime noise inside your bedroom for high-quality sleep.”
We tend to dismiss or take for granted the noise from transport and traffic. While it seems that it does not have an effect on our health and well-being, it will eventually catch up with us and cost us health-wise. I have downloaded and installed the NIOSH app on my phone and occasionally monitor the noise around me whether I am at home or at the office. It can get pretty loud during my commutes and I drive so am curious how loud it can be for those taking public transportation. I have experienced riding in jeepneys blaring loud music. A daily dose of that for long periods each way of the commute will surely affect one’s hearing and overall health. Exposure, after all, isn’t just about the intensity of the noise but how long you experience or endure it.
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Caught (up) in traffic 