Iloilo City government mulls mass transport system

CEBU, Philippines – While traffic situation in Iloilo City is not yet as worse as in Metro Manila, the city government acknowledged the need for a long-term transportation plan, specifically a mass transport system, or an intelligence transport system.

Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog said he would sit down and plan with the City Planning Office and Development Office and other stakeholders to discuss the adoption of the ITS.

According to www.cs.cmu.edu, an ITS “involves a much closer interaction between all of its components: drivers, pedestrians, public transportation and traffic management systems. Adaptive signal systems, driver advisory and route planning and automated vehicles are some of the goals set up to increase the efficiency of actual systems.”

Mabilog believed ITS would be the answer to Iloilo City’s impending traffic woes since the metropolis is currently served mostly by passenger jeepneys and metered taxis, with tricycles and pedicabs plying the secondary roads.

ITS could be a big help for Iloilo City to address the rising demand for transport, but its implementation has one important problem: It will cost the city government around P100 million. “We still have to source the fund for that,” Mabilog said.

Aside from ITS, Mabilog said the monorail system is also being considered. “The Philippine National Railways is looking at the possibility of having one from the Iloilo Airport (in Cabatuan) to the Iloilo Business Park that would run through B. Aquino Avenue,” he said.

However, a feasibility study is still needed for the systems, said the mayor, citing the city’s narrow roads and that most properties in the city are owned by private individuals, which are among the concerns for the proposed mass rapid transport system or the railway system.