Republic of the Philippines

Manuel V. Gallego Foundation Colleges, Inc.

FACTORS AFFECTING TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN MAYAPYAP NORTE,

CABANATUAN CITY, NUEVA ECIJA

An Undergraduate Research Study

Presented to

The Faculty of the College of Criminology

Manuel V. Gallego Foundation Colleges, Inc.

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Subject

Criminology Research and Statistics

By:

Nelson L. Santos

Jerryme A. Santos

Rommel Cando

John Tristan Verde

 CHAPTER 1

Background and of the Study

Introduction

Traffic congestion has been one of the fundamental problems

faced by modern cities since the wide usage of automobiles. Just
a normal few minutes trip to the convenience store may take up
to half an hour due to traffic jam or slowdown. According to the
police, congestions are actually the causes of some issues like
road rage, road bullies and major accidents. This essay will
talk about the causes of traffic congestion and the remedies
that may help to improve the situation.

In 2010 there were more than one billion motor vehicles in

use in the world excluding off-road vehicles and heavy
construction equipment. Global vehicle ownership in 2010 was 148
vehicles in operation per 100 people. The United States has the
largest fleet of motor vehicles in 2010. Vehicle ownership per
capita in the U.S. is also the highest in the world with 769
vehicles in operation per 1000 people. The people Republic of
China has the second largest fleet in the world, with slightly
more than 78 million vehicles and since 2009 became the world’s
largest new car market, in 2011, a total of 80 million cars and
commercial vehicles were built, led by China, with 18.4 million
motor vehicles manufacture (Guesier and Sperling, 2004).

A motor vehicle or road vehicle is a self-propelled wheeled

vehicle that does not operate on rails, such as trains or
trolleys. The vehicle propulsion is provided by an engine or
motor, usually by internal combustion engine, or an electric
motor, or some combination of the two, such as hybrid electric
vehicles and plug-in hybrids. For legal purposes motor vehicles
are often identified within a number of vehicle classes
including automobiles or cars, buses, motorcycles, off highway
vehicle, light trucks or light duty trucks, and truck or
lorries. These classifications vary according to the legal codes
of each country (Delizo, 2006).

The researcher conducted the research study entitled,” Causes

of Traffic Congestion in Mayapyap sur. It is because in their
time there are many causes of traffic congestion in Mayapyap
Sur, as well as the preventive measure implemented for the
violators of the rules and regulations of the PNP personnel in
order to prevent and control traffic congestions besides many of
the commuters who doesn’t know the importance of following the
traffic rules and regulations in order to avoid traffic
congestion and some traffic incidence as well.

Review of Related Literature

Foreign Literature

Traffic can become extremely congested at time. It is

important for one to stay focused on driving and not become
distracted by texting, talking on the cell phone or changing the
radio station. There are many people who are driving along the
road who die each year on roads and highways because of
accident.

Despite the continual expansion of the street and road system

in core cities-or because of it-traffic congestion is the most
striking physical impact of rising motor vehicle use in
twentieth century. It is a manifestation of how cities are
utilized and the degree to which the urban environment is
capable of absorbing or rationalizing the process of the people
moving. Automobile did not invent traffic jams, but they
intensified them with the introduction of mass-produced
automobile packed into space not prepared to accept the new
transit mode. Older towns and the cities in the pre-car period
are faced severe traffic congestion, and in response those into
the new field of city planning proposed making streets wider,
sidewalks narrower, and blocks longer. The broadened roads
encouraged more traffic but made pedestrians less safe, and new
construction create more barriers in neighborhoods or fragmented
them. As one observer noted, “as a technology the auto did not
create contemporary traffic problems any more than use of the
horse did in nineteenth-century cities. Rather it is the overuse
of the auto and the accommodation of social space to it-as a
homogenous system of mobility-that is the problem, (Melosi,
2010).

Urban transportation planning is designed to meet the end

objective of addressing transport problems in terms of traffic
movement, public transport, pedestrian, environment and parking
(Thompson, 2001).

This process includes all vehicle services designed to

transport passengers on local and regional routes. These
services include% private and public buses& trolleybuses&
vanpools& jitneys' demand response services& heavy and light
rail& commuter rail and automated guide (way transit. ) while
public transport use is strongly influenced by external factors
such as composition of the population and car ownership (White,
2003).

Its outmost objective is to provide personal mobility and

freedom as well as help in relieving traffic congestion.
Ideally, it is also the immediate means of helping protect our
environment and conserve energy. Developed countries seem to
attain this objective but a gap seems to happen in developing
countries of Southeast Asia. In fact, the dilemma being faced by
planners is how to effectively address the problems of the poor
without restricting the economic growth of the cities (Kuranami
Winston, and Guitink 2003).

In the last decade, some countries have introduced the

practice of auditing new or existing roadways to assist in
building safety into the road network. This practice is known as
the road safety audit. A road safety audit is a formal and
proactive process to complete a comprehensive traffic safety
study. The Austroads guidelines define a road safety audit as a
“formal examination of a future road or traffic project, an
existing road, or any project which interacts with road users,
in which an independent, qualified team assesses the crash
potential and safety performance” (Austroads, 2002).

These formal safety-focused analyses started during the early

1980’s in the United Kingdom, moved to Australia and New Zealand
in the early 1990’s, and gradually have spread to, many other
countries (Navin et al., 1999). Road safety audits were
introduced to the United States in the mid 1990’s and various
reasons justify the need for implementing them. The first and
most powerful reason is the social and economic need to improve
safety. In the United States, each year more than 40,000 people
are killed and more than three million are injured on traffic
crashes. The estimated social cost of traffic crashes in 2000
was more than US$230 billion (NHTSA, 2002).

Travel time has been identified as the single most important

factor in determining mode choice, given access to a private
auto (Valdez and Arce, 1990). Ridesharing modes are inferior to
driving alone because of the extra time required to pick up or
drop off passengers or to wait to be picked up. As household
incomes increase, value of time increases, and time
considerations play an increasing role in mode choice decisions.
Thus ridesharing has declined historically with rising
affluence, and higher income workers are least likely to
carpool, all other things held constant. Attitudinal studies
show that subjective factors also play a role in mode choice.
Margolin and Misch (1978) found that perceptions of the
carpooling situation—interpersonal rapport with potential car
mates, social requirements of semipublic behaviour, constraints
on independence, and status as a passenger or driver in the
carpool-- are more important to commuters than the objective
attributes of carpooling such as cost or convenience. A recent
study of suburban workers in Orange County, CA. revealed that
the most frequently identified reason for not ridesharing was a
preference for the freedom of driving alone (Glazer and Curry,
1987).

According to the Toronto Board of Trade, in 2010, Toronto is

ranked as the most congested city of 19 surveyed cities, with an
average commute time of 80 minute (John Spears, 2010).

Local Literature

During the early history of motor vehicle, only the urban

places were affected by traffic problem to a certain extent.
However, the unequalled development of the motor vehicle, the
price range, and the pyramiding number of owners and drivers no
longer limits the problem to urban places. In addition to
inherently motor vehicle traffic, major arterials and other
features of modern highway system, together with increased
mobility of the general population, have increased the demand
for effective traffic management of urban and rural places
(Soriano, 2012).

In the Philippines, there are several government agencies

which deal with traffic management. These agencies to include
the metropolitan manila Development Authority, Department of
Transportation and Communications, Department of Public Works
and highways, Traffic Engineering, Philippine National Police-
Police Highway Patrol Group, land Transportation Office, and the
Traffic Management Office of LGUs (Soriano, 2012).

Pedestrian are the only element of traffic that naturally

operates across, rather than with, the vehicular flow. As such,
they have the potential to disrupt traffic significantly, by
crossing at non-designated place or through moving traffic, and
by standing in the roadway while waiting for public
transportation (Lagdameo, 2012).

Although they make up a substantial percentage of the overall

traffic system, pedestrians are largely ignored by enforcers.
When manually controlling an intersection, enforcers do not stop
traffic to allow pedestrians to cross safety and it is not
uncommon for enforcers to signal for traffic to start moving
even through crossing pedestrian are directly in the path of
those vehicle. In fact, enforcers seem to consider pedestrians a
non-traffic element, no different than dogs and cats crossing
the roadway (Lagdameo, 2012).

In addition to being essentially invisible to traffic

enforcers, pedestrians are also ignored by drivers. Crossing in
a marked cross-walk is no safer for a pedestrian rather than
jaywalking (Lagdameo, 2012).

Another project to help decongest traffic, limcaoco said, is

an integrated transport system involving the construction of two
bus terminals in the south and one terminal in the north. He
said about 8,000 provincial buses enter Metro Manila every day.
The project, he added, would be undertaken jointly with the
Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) (Agcaoili,
2012).

The traffic situation in General Santos City is getting worse

as thousands of tricycle units drive along major thoroughfares.
Geraldine Zamora, chairman of the Motorized Transport
Franchising and Regulatory Board (MTFRB), said that despite
former Mayor Darlene Custodio’s policy that regulated the
massive production of sidecars and limited the issuance of
franchise to operators, tricycle units increase in number. The
chairman stressed that it is ridiculous for a highly urbanized
city to have tricycle units outnumber taxis and public utility
jeepneys (PUJ). On the other hand, illegal tricycle operators
and drivers from towns of Alabel, Malapatan, and Glan in
Sarangani provice, and Polmolok and Tupi towns in South Cotabato
Ferry passengers to Gensan, unnoticed by local officials. Lack
of grave sanctions for traffic violators likewise contribute to
the transportation problem in the city (Adlaw, 2013).

With economic losses from traffic congestion reaching P137.5

billion in the year 2011, the government is launching several
infrastructure projects, including modernizing and expanding the
country rail system to make commuters depend less on road
transport (Lagdameo, 2012).

Metro manila traffic, on the other hand, is chaotic. The

average driver is not disciplined, and, as a result of the way
it’s always been, he does not feel bound by the rules of the
road. Those rules exist, in the form of laws and regulations,
but enforcement is extremely weak. Enforcers loosely manage the
general flow of traffic, but ignore most violation. As a result
of this weak enforcement, drivers believe they have the freedom
to disregard regulations and drive aggressively, which in turn
creates a competitive environment where drivers feel they need
to disregard regulations and drive to aggressively. It’s a law
of the jungle environment which, in the absence of effective
enforcement, leave each driver both finding for himself and
deciding for himself how to interact with the network all
drivers (private car owners, public transportation drivers, and
even law enforcement officers0 operate within this paradigm
(Real, 2010).

The traffic management mind-set in Metro Manila places

absolutely no responsibility on drivers to self-comply with
traffic rule. Enforcers use a ‘cattle-herding’ approach
(focusing almost exclusively on public buses), resulting in a
semblance of order only when an enforcer is present and actively
engaging with driver. This ‘catch me if you can approach simply
cannot effectively control the behaviour of more than a million
aggressively-driven vehicles. To create a disciplined ordered
traffic environment it is necessary to place the primary
responsibility for compliance squarely on the shoulders of the
drivers (both public and private). Drivers simply must be forced
to obey traffic regulations on their own. The most effective
method for encouraging compliance is deterrence which can only
be achieved through aggressive enforcement. Enforcers must
actively work to detect violations of all types and then take
corrective action. If certain behaviour consistently results in
a negative consequence, that behaviour will change. The first
step in this process is to assert the Rule of law on Metro
manila roadways. Traffic enforcers and managers assigned to a
variety of agencies and local government units are the front-
line soldiers in this phase. As with many government agencies
senior management relies on front-line supervisors to handle
traffic on a day-to-day basis. And those front-line supervisors
tend to leave it in the hands of the actual enforcers. The
enforcers with little training and less motivation do only what
is necessary to keep the flow moving. As long as traffic is not
in gridlock everyone seems to think that nothing more can or
should be done (Lagdameo, 2012).
Statement of the Problem

1. How many the roads in Mayapyap Sur, be described in terms

of:

a. Type

b. Material;

c. Length;

d. Vehicle allowed; and

e. Direction of traffic?

2. Which among the identified roads experience traffic

congestion?

3. Which among the following factors contribute to the traffic

situation in the selected road?

a. Damages road;

b. Illegal parking;

c. Unimplemented signage;

d. Absence of police;

e. Motorist; and

f. Others?

4. What can be recommended in order to improve traffic

situation in the area?

Scope and Delimitation

The focus of this study is to determine the factors

affecting traffic congestion in Mayapyap Sur, Cabanatuan City.
This will be a case study which will utilize mixed methods; both
observation and Key-informant interview (KII). On January to
April 2019.

Significance of the Study

The study will be beneficial to the following:

Cabanatuan City Police Station. This study will provide baseline

information as how some traffic police officer can do help
traffic congestion at Cabanatuan City. Through this study they
can reflect on how they are efficient in their works and what
they have achieved so far.

Motorists. This study will be beneficial to the public who will

be receiving utmost care and benefits to the roadways. It can
also provide information to avoid traffic congestion in our
roadways that can effects to the effective traffic management.

Future Researchers. This is for the reason that the results of

the study may also serve as a basic in the conduct of other
researcher on area related to the present study.

Criminology Students. They will be able to acquire information

and knowledge which they may letter use in the practice of their
careers as police officers especially about the traffic rules
and regulation.

Definition of term

Terms are defined operationally in order to give a clear and

better understanding of the study.

Traffic Congestion. Traffic congestion is a condition on

transport network that occurs as use increases, and is
characterized by slower speeds, longer trip time, and increased
vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use
of road by vehicle (Reyes, 2015).

Road. A long, narrow stretch with a smoothed or paved surface

made for traveling by motor vehicle, carriage, etc., between two
or more points; street or highway.

Mayapyap Sur. Barangays of Cabanatuan City, in Nueva Ecija

within Region 3-Central Luzon, with a population of 5,473
people. It is led Chairman Ramon Garcia.
(https://psa.gov.ph/sites/default/files/attachments/hsd/pressrele
ase/R03.xlsx)

Illegal Parking. The act of drivers parking vehicles in an

illegal or restricted area such as a fire zone, where signs are
posted, in crosswalks, on sidewalks, or blocking a fire hydrant
as dictated by area traffic laws. Illegal acts of parking are
cited by a warning from local law enforcement and may result in
a violation or fee.

Traffic Signage. A sign usually on the side of a street or

highway bearing symbols or words of warning or direction to
motorists or pedestrians and often having a characteristic shape
— compare stop sign.
Motorist. A person who drives a or travel via automobile.