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.
