CHAPTER II.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Related Literature

Transportation is the basic need of the economic activity. These activities require of

goods and people – to work, to shop, to see different tourist spots, and to other meeting

locations. It empowers trading, technology advancement, financial capacity, and

government functions (Bautista et.al., 2012). Therefore, Transportation was, is and will be

one of the most important issues of people’s life. (UK Essays, 2018) Because mobility is

essential in every aspect of modern life, “having a good transportation network is one of

every modernized city’s initial priorities” (Kumari and Geethanjali, 2010, p. 1).

The population of the Philippines has been steadily growing for many years. It is

the 13th most populated country in the world, between Mexico and Ethiopia, and grew at a

rate of 1.72% between 2010 and 2015. The 2019 population is 108.11 million, according to

the latest UN estimates. (World Population Review, 2019) In the 2007 Census of

Population conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO), Malolos registered 225,244

that is 7.98 % of the Bulacan Province total population of 2,822,216. During the 2000-2007

periods, Malolos recorded an increase of 49,953 or 28.50 %. Annual population grew by

3.58% that is a bit higher than to what the town had during the period 1995-2000 that is

3.46 %. The continued growth in the city’s population in the past 7 years may not only be

attributed to natural increase but also in the influx of migrants from various points of

origin. (Malolos City Government, 2015) As of 2019, the population of the City of Malolos

was 198,748. (World Population Review, 2019)

A large part of the population lives in the urban areas like Malolos and it is still

expected to grow through the years; According to a publication published by Asian

Development Bank (ADB) in 2012, 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 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. These data only shows that mobility is indeed

important to modern Philippine society, as transport is a key economic sector that links the

population and the country’s economic center.

Ranking in Traffic Situation

According to a survey conducted by *Numbeo.com, As of 2019, Philippines

Ranked 7th place among 73 countries around the globe and 1st in South-East Asia with a

traffic index of 196.62. Aside from traffic index, they also included some other

information about the traffic situation in the Philippines.

Time index (in minutes) tells the average traffic time, Philippines gets a score of

44.15 which is the highest among its neighbouring countries like Indonesia with 42.93,

Singapore with 42.15, Thailand with 39.40, Malaysia with 35.25 and Vietnam with 28.33

Inefficiency index tells how inefficient is the traffic management in the country.

While Indonesia tops with a score of 249.49, Philippines ranked second with a score of

243.43 followed by Thailand with 226.43, Malaysia with 175.03, Singapore with 165.18,

and Vietnam with 109.43.

Causes of Traffic Congestion

According to an article entitled: ‘Understanding the Traffic Problem: Causes and

Effects’ published by the Philippine Star, the following are the top three causes of traffic in

the country.

1. Uncontrolled volumes

There is no stopping a very high population volume from acquiring too many

vehicles that are fiercely competing to occupy the same spaces at the same time. In this

country, car manufacturers are driven only by insatiable greed and reckless profit and don't

have corporate social responsibility. The government doesn't control vehicle licensing and

is oblivious to the reality that space is limited. Thus car sales are endlessly transacted

without any regard for their impact on traffic. Vehicle sales are not subjected to priority,

like giving importance to those involved in movement to save lives and transport food and

medicines, before any other needs or luxuries like tobacco and liquor.

2. Failure to manage limited spaces

Government allows illegal parking and gives licenses to vehicle owners without

sufficient parking spaces or garages. Giant malls are put up by greedy taipans along main

thoroughfares. Illegal structures are built along highways and roads and the government is

inutile or corrupt enough not to solve these with a sense of purpose and urgency.

3. Failure to manage time

The authorities allow companies to start working times and end work schedules all

at the same time with school and mall hours. Thus, movement and volume are allowed to

overwhelm limited time and space.

Impacts of Traffic Congestion

With the fast-paced increase of car ownership in Metro Manila alone, peaking max

of 2,101,148 registered vehicles in recent years based on LTO study, add the citizen-noted

inability of some drivers to follow rules, traffic congestion has been recognized to have

worsened compared with previous years. International news station CNN even reported a

popular GPS-based navigation app’s research concluding Metro Manila as one of the cities

with the “worst traffic on Earth” in 2015 (lifestyle Inquirer, 2017). The effects in different

aspect of the society can be summarized as follows:

1. Impacts on the Economy

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported about 37 million employed Filipinos

from last year. Perhaps about half of this number work and travel through the main

thoroughfares of the city to get to their workplace in Central Business Districts daily. On

top of that, billions of students also rely on public transportation to get to school. Given

today’s private and public institutions, tardiness takes away a huge chuck in one’s

performance. A mere hour spent enduring traffic in EDSA alone could affect one’s job or

study greatly. What’s worse is that when employees and students get stuck in gridlock,

they feel stressed. A feeling which can also affect how they process their deliverable. It

won’t take long before company owners and teachers see the effect of traffic jams to the

economy(Lifestyle Inquirer, 2017).

According to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) the worsening traffic

in Metro Manila now costs P3.5 billion in lost opportunities per day which is higher than

the estimated P2.4 billion in 2012.

2. Impacts in our Health

According to Manila Bulletin, traffic congestion not only does it cost

Filipinos millions in potential income everyday but traffic congestion in Metro

Manila had a tremendous impact on public health, a study by an environment

watchdog bared.

A study by non-government organization Kaibigan ng Kaunlaran at Kalikasan

(KKK) concluded that traffic congestion in Metro Manila has contributed to respiratory

and cardiovascular diseases among commuters, such as asthma, chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease, heart disease and stroke due to the inhalation and ingestion of

pollutants.

KKK’s study, titled “Modeling Particulate Matter Disperson in Metro Manila,” was

conducted over a period of two years and completed recently with support from non-profit

group Clean Air Asia, scientific research institute Manila Observatory, and other

independent professionals. It covered 16 cities and one municipality.

About 76 percent of air pollutants come from vehicle emissions, while other “area”

sources, including burning refuse, street-side cooking, and construction work, account for

20 percent of air pollution, while only four percent was attributed to industrial sources.

Their study specifically focused on particulate matter that can easily enter people’s

lungs and cause coughing, sneezing and asthma in children.

Such small particulates are also internationally recognized as causing ischemic

heart disease, cardiopulmonary diseases, respiratory dysfunctions, and lung cancer.

The project used an internationally recognized mathematical technique to predict

the pathways of pollution from various sources.

Related Studies

Related studies were reviewed to enrich this study and to serve as basis for the

researcher’s approach to the investigation.

Local Studies

A local study entitled "E-Purse Transit Pass: The Potential of Public Transport

Smart Card System in the

Philippines" was conducted by Desiree I. Cendana and Neriza V. Bustillo. The

main objective of this study was to explore the potential of implementing a smart card

system in the Philippines to improve the fare payment matrix in public transport utilities

and analyze its impact to hypothetically solve issues on the worsening of traffic problem in

urban areas, variability in implementation of fare matrix, and nondiscriminatory request to

avail of PWD, student and senior citizen discount.

Quantitative method and deductive approach was used in the process to assess the

validity of findings. Participant observation was also conducted to understand the

participant’s gratification on the benefits that the framework may offer to the people thus

resulting to a qualitative research and to understand the correlation of the quantitative

findings based from the survey. With the proposed framework, the acceptability of

the visualized used of smart card could result to a highly sustainable transport payment

system in the country that can help promote faster, convenient, standardized fare payment

collection and matrix, gratified and placated passenger experience within the region and

positive realization of a cost-effective way of transportation for economical commuters.

These activities require transport of goods and people to work, to shop, to

see different tourist spots, and to other

meeting locations. It empowers trading, technology advancement, financial capacity, and

government functions. In human civilization stage, transportation plays a very important

role to transfer people and goods from one place to another. Economic, social, political and

cultural developments have evolved because of the continuous innovation in the field

of transportation. Further, economic growth and formation of several cities had

contributed to fast changing growth on the lifestyle of residents in developed countries.

With essential need to provide a good transportation services and efficiency of transactions,

research authors have attested that several countries have started adopting new trends in

improving their ticketing and payment system in their public transportation. Subsequently,

research authors have seen that from the day to day operation of the transit system in

public transit agencies to their strategic-term planning of the network, the transit agencies

have been continually using smart card for their fare collection system. Moreover, this

smart card was used to produce useful data on onboard transactions. Fare payment

collection has been one of the dominating modernization that is considered an exogenous

parameter in optimizing the bus services.

Foreign Studies

A foreign study entitled " How Seoul used the ‘T-Money’ smart transportation card

to re-plan the public transportation system of the city; implications for governance of

innovation in urban public transportation systems" was conducted by Maxime AUDOUIN,

Mohamad RAZAGHI, and Matthias FINGER from Istanbul, Turkey. Seoul introduced a

new a smart card system that significantly changed the way Public Transportation

System work in the city. This card, named T-Money card and using Radio

Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology, aimed to improve the public

transportation system of Seoul by bringing different advantages to users such as the

possibility to transfer freely between all the transportation modes, removing the cash-

payment burden and time losses at the transportation gates and to enable the fleets in

the public transportation system to better respect their schedules. More than improving

the conditions of the urban transportation system, the T-Money card had a real impact on

the lives of many urban dwellers by making them save important amounts of money

because of the new fare system that could be introduced in Seoul thanks to this innovation.

The transportation system brings mobility to people and by doing so, supports

economic development. Transportation is one of the major components of the urban

economy and can act as a lever of action to improve the system conditions.
 Conceptual Framework

INPUT PROCESS
OUTPUT

 Efficient
 Response of the
Management of Fare
Colletion for Public  Questionnaire’s Evaluation Respondents
(Commuters
Jeepney around
 Main Concern of the around Malolos
Mslolos
specifically
 Related Theories of Theories Students and
the Study Workers from
BulSU)

The process the researchers will use to conduct this research study is shown in the figure.

The first frame, input, shows the main problem of the researchers, the Role of Technology

in the Efficient Management of Fare Collection for Public Jeepney around Malolos .

Additional problems were stated and it will all be answered once the researchers conduct the

study.

In the second frame, the process needed in acquiring the solution for the research problems

was shown. It includes the distribution of the survey sheets. This will be the tool of the

researchers in determining the answers to the problems. Random interview of the

respondents will follow. The last frame shows the questionnaire’s evaluation and the

application of the theories involved. The questionnaire’s evaluation shows the answers to

the questions associated to the study. The application of the theories show how the

researchers will use these in unraveling the solution to the research problem. The
researchers hope to find out the role of technology in the efficient management of fare

collection for public jeepney around Malolos.

Assumption of the Study

This study discerns to address the (1) issues encountered by both commuters and public

jeepney transport sector in Malolos, Bulacan in terms of (a) fare matrix and discounts (b)

payment collection and (c) ticketing. Thus, the study aims to explore the potential of

implementing a smart card system in the Philippines to improve its fare payment matrix in

public transport utilities and analyze its impact to hypothetically solve issues on the

worsening of traffic problem in urban areas, variability in implementation of fare matrix,

and non-discriminatory request to avail of PWD, student and senior citizen discount.

Definition of Terms

1. Cash-based Payment is the use of cash as public transportation payment method.

2. Cash Card Payment is the use of an RFID-enabled card technology as public

transportation payment method.

Notes

1. City Government of Malolos, Bulacan: Government. (2015). Basic Socio-

Economic and Demographic Data. Retrieved from

http://www.maloloscity.gov.ph/government/history/basic-socio-economic-and-

demographic-data

2. D. Bautista, C. Martinez, and R. Rivadeniera Jr., “Localization of intelligent

transportation system: a proposed system architecture at UP – Ayala Technohub

Area (along Commonwealth Avenue), Mapua Institute of Technology, 2012

3. Essays, UK. (November 2018). History of Transportation. Retrieved from

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/transportation/history-of-

transportation.php?vref=1

4. Philippines Population. (2019-04-02). Retrieved from

http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/philippines/

5. Philippine Cities Population. (2019-04-02). Retrieved from

http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/philippines-population/cities/

6. https://varsitarian.net/special-reports/20181128/manila-traffic-3rd-worst-in-

southeast-asia-survey*