Metro Cebu’s traffic solution: Mass Transit (Part 3)

Untangling the Gridlock

If there is an obvious solution to the traffic problem in Metro Cebu that urban planners, traffic experts, local officials, and the private sector could agree upon, it would be the urgent need for a public mass transport system.

Next to Metro Manila, Metro Cebu is the second largest metropolis in the Philippines.

Based on a Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) 2015 census, Cebu province has a population of 2,938,982.

The figure does not include those living in three of Cebu’s largest cities namely it’s capital Cebu City which has a population of 922,611, Lapu-Lapu City (408, 112), and Mandaue City (362, 654).

All in all, the total population of Cebu island is 4,632,359, according to PSA.

More than half of this number or 61.5 percent live in the cities and towns of Metro Cebu.

PSA also found that Cebu had the fastest rate of population growth in Central Visayas at 2.2 percent as of 2015.

An area’s population is a vital factor used by urban planners, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in mapping out a traffic system to optimize road use.

JICA’s Roadmap Study for Sustainable Urban Development in Metro Cebu estimated the population of the metropolis to balloon to 5 million by 2050 when an Urban Mass Rapid Transport (UMRT) with routes along the coast and Central Metro Cebu, should have already been in place, said JICA.

But as early as 2015, or 35 years before 2050, Metro Cebu’s total population has neared the three million mark at 2,849,213.

Each day, the need for an efficient mass transport system is becoming more pronounced.

MASS TRANSIT

In 2002, JICA released a study on Metro Cebu’s infrastructure development highlighting the correlation between rapid population growth in the metropolis and traffic congestion.

JICA found out that while the population of Metro Cebu was rapidly increasing, infrastructure developments to ease traffic had failed to keep up with it.

“Development of urban infrastructure, however, did not keep pace with increasing demands, leading to traffic congestion. Road conditions were poor, and unpaved and narrow roads impeded vehicular traffic, especially during the rainy season,” JICA said.

In its 2015 report, JICA — together with the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board (MCDCB) — concluded that traffic problems remained an issue, and decongestion was a goal that still needed to be achieved.

The report emphasized the need for a public transport system that can accommodate a large volume of passengers.

Results of a current JICA study on the development of an urban transport system in Metro Cebu are expected to be released later this year.

The study will serve as a guide for local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders on the type of transport system to implement at the right time based on a set of indicators.

JICA discourages a monocentric type of urban development where commercial and infrastructural growth are limited to certain areas only notably, the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu.

The agency, instead, proposes a polycentric urbanization, which was found to be more sustainable since resources and chances of commercial growth would be distributed across a larger area.

For Metro Cebu to completely achieve a polycentric form of urban development, an effective transport system is needed to bring commuters from one point to another without hampering social and economic activities, JICA said.

“Since urban sprawl has already begun in the suburban areas in Metro Cebu, rapid urbanization should be controlled until a sufficient transport network is provided to avoid the deterioration of traffic congestion,” the JICA report added.

MORE VEHICLES ON THE ROAD

An increase in the number of private and public vehicles on the streets of Metro Cebu has been identified as one of the causes of the worsening traffic condition.

Data from the Land Transportation Office in Central Visayas (LTO – 7) showed that the number of cars registered in Cebu City alone increased at a rate of 21.85 percent since 2013.

JICA also found that in 2017, privately owned cars shared 22 percent of Cebu City’s traffic volume — a figure bigger compared to other cities and towns in Metro Cebu.

The bulk of Cebu City’s traffic volume or 48 percent came from public utility vehicles while motorcycles were at 23 percent, and trucks and tricycles at six percent.

With Metro Cebu’s worsening traffic, Central Visayas’ largest transport group, Cebu Integrated Transport Service Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Citrasco), backed the calls for LGUs to provide an effective transportation system to the public.

“The need for a mass transport system is now an urgent call. It’s one of the most efficient and convenient solutions to traffic congestion. If it has been implemented before, we may never have to go through the struggle we’re experiencing today,” said Ryan Benjamin Yu, president of Citrasco

Businessman Glenn Anthony Soco, head of the Regional Development Council – Infrastructure Development Committee (RDC – IDC) in Central Visayas, agreed on the urgent need for a mass transport system in Metro Cebu.

“We have to find the most economical and most viable way to move people from Point A to Point B, and we have to maximize the use of our road space,” Soco said.

BRT, LRT

To alleviate the growing traffic problems, JICA and MCDCB classified Cebu City’s planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as a short-term project.

The Cebu BRT has funds amounting to US$ 198-million both from World Bank (WB) and the French government, through the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) — two of the world’s largest financial institutions that grant loans for the realization of a country’s capital projects.

However, stakeholders expressed reservations on the BRT since Cebu City’s existing narrow roads may render the project a failure.

The BRT project which was given the go signal for implementation by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in 2017, has incurred multiple delays that could cost the Philippine government P14 million a year, according to a report by the Commission on Audit (COA).

While the Cebu BRT project still has to operate, unsolicited proposals have poured in from private entities suggesting other types of mass transport.

Last March, Manila-based Philtram Transportation Consortium Inc. unveiled plans to build the Metro Cebu Monorail line from Mandaue City to the South Road Properties (SRP) with a budget of US$1 billion.

Philtram’s Chief Operation Officer (COO) Jose Guardo Jr., said that the project, targeted for completion in 2021, may extend all the way up to Consolacion town, north of Metro Cebu, to help ease traffic in that area as well.

The proposed project will feature a Bombardier Innovia Monorail 300 vehicle, with a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour, which can carry up to 750 passengers within a six-coach train.

Guardo said the monorail project is designed to coexist harmoniously with the Cebu BRT.

Its “economically viable” routes would include SRP going to N. Bacalso Ave., to S. Osmeña Road, all the way north to Mandaue City.

The 16-kilometer route will also pass through different establishments like City Di Mare, the proposed development in Kawit Property and SM Seaside City– all in the SRP; the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U); Cebu South Bus Terminal, Robinsons Galleria Cebu; SM City Cebu; Parkmall; and Pacific Mall.

Aside from the monorail, Metro Cebu is also being eyed by two foreign firms as a potential area for a Light Rail Transit (LRT) system.

Japan-based Tranzen Group Inc. and several LGUs in Metro Cebu signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) last March to allow the firm to conduct a feasibility study for an LRT system.

Tranzen’s P 80-billion LRT project will have 15 stations, including two located underground. It will go all the way up to Mactan Island.

A few months after Tranzen inked its agreement with the LGUs, a Chinese-dominated consortium consisting of at least five local and foreign companies proposed an LRT project estimated to cost US$3 billion or roughly P155 billion.

Similar to that of Tranzen, the proposal also covers the entire Metro Cebu.

Most of the proposals promised that it will cost the partner government agencies from little to nothing under a private-public partnership (PPP).

A ‘BASKET OF SOLUTIONS’

Ryan Benjamin Yu of the transport group, Citrasco, called for a more careful and thorough study.

“It is good to know that there are a lot of solutions being offered to alleviate traffic congestion in Metro Cebu but let’s not forget to scrutinize these projects as well as carefully plan out how we should go about on making them happen,” he said.

“It has to be a combination of solutions. When you talk about transport, you also talk about walking, having safe and good pedestrian lanes, improved sidewalks, and where PWDs (persons with disabilities) can have good access,” RDC’s Glenn Soco, for his part, said.

Meantime, a debate on which transport mode was best suited for Metro Cebu emerged with issues ranging from efficiency, cost, and how fast the project can be implemented.

“It’s not surprising that big-ticket projects, such as those involving mass transport, will be used as political mileage by some politicians. Politics is also one reason why we are yet to implement one,” said Yu.

Yu and Soco, remained hopeful that Metro Cebu’s vision of providing an effective mass transport for the public would soon be realized.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr), meanwhile, plans to put all proposed modes of mass transport in Cebu into one integrated system.

DOTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said that the Integrated Inter-Modal Transport System (IITS) in Metro Cebu is the “basket of solutions” which government has promised to alleviate traffic congestion in the metropolis.

The IITS will include the BRT in three-lane roads, a point-to-point (P2P) bus system, a monorail in Lapu-Lapu City; and LRT lines from Carcar to Danao, and Mandaue to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

Last September 19, DOTr said that the Technical Support Consultant (TSC) for the BRT component of the IITS has been mobilized raising hopes that a functioning mass transport system in Metro Cebu would soon be enforced.

(To be continued)