BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

CE 11 – PRINCIPLES OF ENGINEERING
TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

Engr. Hebe M. Cuenco-Uy, MECE

College of Engineering
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Learning Packet 2
TRASNPORTATION AS A SYSTEM AND
PHILIPPINE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
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UNIT 2: TRANSPORTATION AS A SYSTEM AND

PHILIPPINE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

2.0 Intended Learning Outcome

Identify transportation as a system and the transportation system in the Philippines.

2.1 Introduction

Transportation includes infrastructure, administration, vehicles, and users and can be

viewed from various aspects, including engineering, economics, and societal issues. A
transportation system can be defined narrowly as a single driver/vehicle with its second-by-
second interactions with the road and other vehicles. The system can also be defined broadly
as a regional transportation infrastructure with its year-by-year interactions with the regional
economy, the community of transportation users and owners, and its control components
such as transportation administration and legislature. These two extremes exemplify the
range of transportation systems, with various intermediate scenarios possible.

2.2 Topics/Discussion

2.2.1 Transportation as a System

In the last couple of decades transportation systems analysis has emerged as a recognized
profession. More and more government organizations, universities, researchers, consultants,
and private industrial groups around the world are becoming truly multi-modal in their
orientation and are opting a systematic approach to transportation problems.

2.2.1.1 Characteristics of Transportation System

The characteristics of transportation system that makes it diverse and complex are
listed below:

1. Multi-modal: Covering all modes of transport; air, land, and sea for both passenger
and freight.

2. Multi-sector: Encompassing the problems and viewpoints of government, private

industry, and public.

3. Multi-problem: Ranging across a spectrum of issues that includes national and

international policy, planning of regional system, the location and design of
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specific facilities, carrier management issues, regulatory, institutional and financial

policies.

4. Multi-objective: Aiming at national and regional economic development, urban

development, environment quality, and social quality, as well as service to users
and financial and economic feasibility.

5. Multi-disciplinary: Drawing on the theories and methods of engineering,

economics, operations research, political science, psychology, other natural, and
social sciences, management and law.

Study Context:
1. Planning range: Urban transportation planning, producing long range plans for
5-25 years for multimodal transportation systems in urban areas as well as short
range programs of action for less than five years.
2. Passenger transport: Regional passenger transportation, dealing with inter-city
passenger transport by air, rail, and highway and possible with new modes.
3. Freight transport: Routing and management, choice of different modes of rail
and truck.
4. International transport: Issues such as containerization, inter-modal co-
ordination.

2.2.1.2 Critical Dimensions of Change in Transportation System

The strong interrelationship and the interaction between transportation and the rest
of the society especially in a rapidly changing world is significant to a transportation
planner. Among them four critical dimensions of change in transportation system can
be identified; which form the background to develop a right perspective.

1. Change in the demand: When the population, income, and land-use pattern
changes, the pattern of demand changes; both in the amount and spatial
distribution of that demand.

2. Changes in the technology: As an example, earlier, only two alternatives (bus

transit and rail transit) were considered for urban transportation. But, now new
systems like LRT, MRTS, etc. offer a variety of alternatives.

3. Change in operational policy: Variety of policy options designed to improve the

efficiency, such as incentive for car-pooling, bus fare, road tolls etc.

4. Change in values of the public: Earlier all beneficiaries of a system was

monolithically considered as users. Now, not one system can be beneficial to all,
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instead one must identify the target groups like rich, poor, young, work trip,
leisure etc.

In spite of the diversity of problem types, institutional contexts and technical

perspectives there is an underlying unity: a body of theory and set of basic principles
to be utilized in every analysis of transportation systems. The core of this is the
transportation system analysis approach. The focus of this is the interaction between
the transportation and activity systems of region. This approach is to intervene,
delicately and deliberately in the complex fabric of society to use transport effectively
in coordination with other public and private actions to achieve the goals of that
society. For this the analyst must have substantial understanding of the transportation
systems and their interaction with activity systems; which requires understanding of
the basic theoretical concepts and available empirical knowledge.

2.2.1.3 Basic Premise of a Transportation System

The first step in formulation of a system analysis of transportation system is to

examine the scope of analytical work. The basic premise is the explicit treatment of
the total transportation system of region and the interrelations between the
transportation and socioeconomic context. They can be stated as:

P1 The total transportation system must be viewed as a single multi-modal

system.
P2 Considerations of transportation system cannot be separated from
considerations of social, economic, and political system of the region.

This follows the following steps for the analysis of transportation system:
▪ S1 Consider all modes of transportation
▪ S2 Consider all elements of transportation like persons, goods, carriers (vehicles),
paths in the network facilities in which vehicles are going, the terminal, etc.
▪ S3 Consider all movements of passengers and goods for every Origin-Destination
(O-D) pair.
▪ S4 Consider the total trip for every flows for every O-D over all modes and
facilities.

As an example, consider the study of intra-city passenger transport in metro cities.

• Consider all modes: i.e rail, road, buses, private automobiles, trucks, new modes
like LRT, MRTS, etc.
• Consider all elements like direct and indirect links, vehicles that can operate,
terminals, transfer points, intra-city transit like taxis, autos, urban transit.
• Consider diverse pattern of O-D of passenger and goods.
• Consider service provided for access, egress, transfer points and mid-block travel
etc. Once all these components are identified, the planner can focus on elements
that are of real concern.
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2.2.2 Philippine Transportation System

Transport is a key sector in the Philippine economy, linking population and economic centers
across the islands. The transport system of the Philippines consists of road, water, air, and
rail transport. Water transport plays an important role due to the archipelagic nature of the
country, but road transport is by far the dominant subsector accounting for 98% of passenger
traffic and 58% of cargo traffic. While the transport infrastructure has been developed and
spread across the country (about 215,000 kilometers [km] of roads, 1,300 public and private
ports, and 215 public and private airports), the level of service has not been sufficient due to
the lack of sustainable financing. Improving transport infrastructure is critical for
strengthening the investment climate and enhancing economic growth. The Philippines has
seen modest improvement in the quality of its transport services, but a large part of the road
network remains in poor condition and intermodal integration is generally weak. Poor sector
governance also impedes efficient operation of the sector.

2.2.2.1 Roads

The Philippines has 216,612 kilometers (134,596 mi) of roads, with 83% being paved
and 17% being unpaved.

Figure 2.1. Source: DPWH Strategic Infrastructure Policies and Programs

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▪ The major cause of the overall low quality of the road network is poor and
inadequate maintenance. This is the result of insufficient financial
resources being made available for maintenance, and inadequate
institutional capacity of agencies responsible for road maintenance.

▪ The poor quality of the road network is a contributing factor to the rising
number of road accidents. There were 14,794 recorded road accidents in
2008, a 28% increase from 2007. Deaths from road accidents in the first
half of 2009 reached 624, which was 9% more than in the equivalent period
in 2008. According to the Department of Health, in 2008 road accidents
became the fourth leading cause of death in the Philippines.

The government has developed a network of tolled expressways in central Luzon to

address transport constraints on economic development by (i) linking the major
economic and transport centers in Metro Manila and adjacent provinces, from Tarlac
in the north to Batangas in the south; and (ii) facilitating multimodal transport. The
expressway network, developed through public–private partnerships (PPPs) and with
bilateral development assistance, links industrial parks and special economic zones,
the ports at Subic and Batangas, and Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in
Pampanga. While the development of this network has reduced travel times
significantly, additional efforts to increase port capacity and improve management
are necessary to realize fully the benefits of an integrated multimodal transport
system.

2.2.2.2 Railways

Rail transportation in the Philippines includes services provided by three rapid transit
lines and one commuter rail line as follows:

1. Manila Light Rail Transit System (Lines 1 and 2) – The Manila Light Rail Transit
System or the LRTA system, a rapid transit system serving the Metro Manila area,
is the first metro system in Southeast Asia. Its 31 stations along over 31 kilometers
(19 mi) of mostly elevated track form two lines: the original Line 1, and the more
modern Line 2 which passes through the cities of Caloocan, Manila, Marikina,
Pasay, San Juan and Quezon City.

2. Manila Metro Rail Transit System (Line 3) – The system is located along the
Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), one of Metro Manila's main thoroughfares.
It has 13 stations along its 16.95 km track form a single line which is the Line 3
which passes through the cities of Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasay and Quezon City.

3. PNR Metro South Commuter Line – Philippine National Railways (PNR) operates
a commuter line that serves a region from Metro Manila south toward Laguna.
PNR, a state-owned railway system of the Philippines, alongside a tramway
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Figure 2.2. LRT on the left, MRT on the right.

system in Manila, were established during the Spanish Colonial period. The
intercity rail used to provide services on Luzon, connecting northern and southern
Luzon with Manila; on the other hand, the tramway served what is known today
as Metro Manila.

2.2.2.3 Air Transport

There are 215 airports in the Philippines, of which 84 are government-owned and
controlled and the rest are privately owned and operated. Of the government-
controlled airports, 12 are designated as international airports, 15 are Principal Class
1 airports, 19 are Principal Class 2 airports, and 40 are community airports. The
busiest airport in the Philippines is Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in
Manila, which handled 435,486 aircraft movements and an estimated 29.6 million
passengers in 2011. Mactan International Airport in Cebu is the second-busiest airport
in the country with 82,554 aircraft movements and 6.3 million passengers in 2011.
Domestic passenger traffic at NAIA has been growing at almost 10% per annum since
2000. The growth of domestic freight traffic has been much less at about 2.4% per
annum. Given the growth of both international and domestic air traffic through NAIA
in recent years, serious capacity constraints are likely to emerge before long.
To address this, the government has plans to further develop Diosdado Macapagal
International Airport, formerly Clark International Airport, as an alternative
international gateway serving central Luzon. These plans will need to be closely
coordinated with those for the development of NAIA, and they will need to include
consideration of appropriate land transport connections between Diosdado
Macapagal International Airport and Metro Manila.
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2.2.2.4 Water Transport

Interisland water transport is a very important subsector of the national transport

system. There are about 1,300 ports, of which about 1,000 are government-owned and
the rest are privately owned and managed. Of the government-owned ports, about
140 fall under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and the Cebu
Ports Authority; the remainder are the responsibility of other government agencies or
local government units.

1. River Ferries – The Pasig River Ferry Service is a river ferry service that serves
Metro Manila, it is also the only water-based transportation that cruised the Pasig
River. The entire ferry network had 17 stations operational and 2 lines. The first
line was the Pasig River Line which stretched from Plaza Mexico in Intramuros,
Manila to Nagpayong station in Pasig. The second line was the Marikina River
Line which served the Guadalupe station in Makati up to Santa Elena station in
Marikina.

2. Ferry Services – Because it is an island nation, ferry services are an important

means of transportation. A range of ships are used, from large cargo ships to small
pump boats. Some trips last for a day or two on large overnight ferries such as
those operated by 2GO Travel while other trips can last for less than 15 minutes on
small, open-air pump boats such as those that cross the Iloilo Strait. There are
numerous shipping companies in the Philippines: 2GO/SuperFerry, Cebu Ferries,
Cokaliong Shipping Lines, International Container Terminal Services Inc.,
Montenegro Lines, Negros Navigation, Roble Shipping Inc., Sulpicio Lines,
Gothong Lines, Trans-Asia Shipping Lines, and Weesam Express.

3. Ports and harbors – The busiest port is the Port of Manila, especially the Manila
International Cargo Terminal and the Eva Macapagal Port Terminal, both in the
pier area of Manila. Other cities with bustling ports and piers include Bacolod
City, Batangas City, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu City, Davao City, Butuan, Iligan, Iloilo
City, Jolo, Legazpi City, Lucena City, Puerto Princesa, San Fernando, Subic,
Zamboanga City, Cotabato City, General Santos City, Allen, Ormoc, Ozamiz,
Surigao and Tagbilaran. Most of these terminals comprise the Strong Republic
Nautical Highway, a nautical system conceptualized under the term of President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo where land vehicles can use the roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro)
ferries to cross between the different islands.

2.2.2.5 Urban Transport

The Philippines is experiencing rapid urbanization, and by 2030, about 77% of the
population will live in urban areas. There are 120 cities in the country, including 16
in Metro Manila, which is the only metropolitan area in the Philippines. Other major
urban agglomerations exist, including in Davao, Cebu, and Iloilo, but they lack formal
metropolitan organizations. Transport systems in these cities are almost entirely road
based, with the exception of Metro Manila. Transport services consist mainly of
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jeepneys (public utility vehicles), taxis, tricycles, and pedicabs that are privately
owned and operated. In 2010, taxis comprised 667,424 (35%) of the 1.9 million vehicles
in Metro Manila, and half of the 6.6 million vehicles in the country were motorcycles.
Motorcycle users are vulnerable to road crashes and contribute significantly to traffic
congestion.

Figure 2.3. Transport Services

Video Lessons:

PNR (Philippine National Railway) New vs. Old | Tara sakay tayo sa bago!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgzexvr6EIw

The Philippines’ Mega Manila Infrastructure Roadmap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=zM_Z4CGgZSM&feature=emb_l
ogo

Update | State of Transportation System in the Philippines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLVtoO3iOLw

Assessment

Summative Test 2.
Answer the following completely.

1. Identify the transportation system in your municipality. Describe each.

Provide complete information (might include photos and other
documentation). 50 points.
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2. In your point of view, how can you improve the transportation system in
your municipality or in the Philippines, in general? Explain
comprehensively. 50 points.

Submit in hardcopy or electronically in pdf format. The test will be rated as

follows:
Content 40%
Originality 30%
Effort 20%
Timeliness 10%
Total 100%

2.3 References

Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering. Transportation of

Engineering. https://tnigatu.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/chapter-11.pdf

Asian Development Bank. (2012). Philippines – Transport Sector Assessment, Strategy, and
Road Map.
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/institutional-
document/33700/files/philippines-transport-assessment.pdf

Garber, N.J. and L.A. Hoel. (2009). Traffic and Highway Engineering – 4th Edition. Cengage
Learning.
http://civilcafe.weebly.com/uploads/2/8/9/8/28985467/traffic_and_highway_engineeri
ng_4th_edition.pdf
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