LESSON 2: TRANSPORTATION AS A SYSTEM AND THE PHILIPPINE TRANSPORTATION

SYSTEM

I. Transportation System
II. The Philippine Transport System.
III. Road Classification System in The Philippines
IV. Sector Performance, Problems and Opportunities

I. TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
Is a system that involves facilities that implements, coordinates, and unifies the means and equipment
necessary for the movement of passengers and goods?

ADVANTAGES
 Essential Services
 Economic Growth
 Employment
 Social Connectivity
 Tourism

1.1 Components of a Transportation System

ORGANIZATIONS

Facility-oriented organization – they are involved in planning, designing, constructing,

maintaining, and operating fixed facilities

Ex: DOTr, MMDA, DPWH, PPA

Operating Organization (or carriers) – concerned with operating fleets to provide transportation services.
They include railroads, airlines, truck lines, and private individuals who operate automobiles,
motorcycles, and bicycles.

1.2 Diverse Characteristics

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

a) Multi-modal:
Covering all modes of transport; air, land, and sea for both passenger and freight.
b) Multi-sector:
Encompassing the problems and viewpoints of government, private industry, and public.
 c) Multi-problem:
Ranging across a spectrum of issues that includes national and international policy,
planning of regional system, the location and design of specific facilities, carrier management
issues, and regulatory, institutional and financial policies.
d) 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.
e) Multi-disciplinary:
Drawing on the theories and methods of engineering, economics, operations research,
political science, psychology, other natural, and social sciences, management and law.

II. PHILIPPINE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

ROAD TRANSPORT

RAIL TRANSPORT
WATER TRANSPORT

AIR TRANSPORT

III. ROAD CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES

Classification of Road According to Usage and National Importance

TYPES OF ROADS ACCORDING TO USAGE
A. National Roads
B. Provincial Roads
C. City/ Municipal Roads
D. Barangay Roads

NATIONAL ROAD
a. Primary National Road – the main highway trunk line system that is continuous in extent
that goes from province to province and region to region.
b. Secondary National Road – connects a provincial or national road to a public wharf for
railway station.
c. Tertiary National Road – other existing roads under DPWH which perform a local function.

PROVINCIAL ROAD
- Connect Cities and Municipalities without traversing National Roads.
- Connect National Roads to Barangays through rural areas.
- Roads maintained by provincial governments in the Philippines.

CITY / MUNICIPAL ROAD

- Roads within the Poblacion Roads that connect to Provincial and National Roads.
- Roads that provide Inter-Barangay connections to Major Municipal and City.
- Infrastructure without traversing Provincial Roads.

BARANGAY ROADS
- Street located outside the poblacion area of a municipality or urban area of a city
and those outside industrial, commercial areas or residential subdivisions.
- Provide access to barangays, small administrative divisions in the Philippines.- are typically
unpaved and are used primarily by agricultural vehicles, motorbikes, and pedestrians.

TYPES OF ROADS ACCORDING TO NATIONAL IMPORTANCE

1. Major Roads - are those roads of national importance. They are frequently used by
traffic and leads to vital areas such as major cities and installations. Examples of major
roads are those roads classified as national roads or those which part of the highway
system.
2. Minor Roads - are roads which are local in nature as its serves only the interest of the
locality such as street. Minor roads are less frequently used by traffic.

IV. SECTOR PERFORMANCE, PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES

With its numerous islands and expanding cities, the Philippines aspires to build an efficient
transportation infrastructure that connects the islands. This is critical for increasing the
country's economy and facilitating the movement of products and services inside the country.
It is also essential for the wider Southeast Asian area, in which the Philippines is located,
because it may contribute to economic growth, poverty reduction, and improved living
circumstances, particularly on isolated islands. The Philippine strategy, known as the nautical highways
model, aims to create seamless linkages from north to south across oceans and islands, helping
neighboring nations by encouraging commerce and lowering expenses. Furthermore,
upgrading urban transportation on the more populous islands is critical for increasing
productivity and satisfying the requirements of a rising population.

The Philippines has been lagging behind many neighboring countries in infrastructure
development. Roads, ports, and airports, especially in rural areas, often lack the modern
technology needed for efficient transportation and distribution.
According to a study published in the open-access journal Sustainability, the Philippines faces
several challenges in the transportation sector, including
 poor quality of the road network
 poor intermodal connectivity
 inadequate public transport services

These challenges make it difficult for people to access essential services, such as health care
and education, and limit economic opportunities for many Filipinos.

ROAD NETWORK QUALITY

Roads are used to transport most persons and goods, with a 98% share of passenger and 58%
share of cargo traffic. At the start of 2009, the country’s road system was 205,778kilometers (km) in length.
National roads accounted for 14.4% of the road system; 75.1% of national roads were paved with
asphalt and/or concrete, compared with only 22% of local roads. Only 56.2% of national roads
were in good or fair condition, however. Investment in road transport has remained at about
0.6% of gross domestic product (GDP), much lower than in other countries in the Southeast
Asia region. The low level of investment has resulted in a low road density (22.4 km
per 10,000 persons), one of the worst in the region, as well as high vehicle operating costs.

URBAN TRANSPORT

In the Philippines, urban public transport relies heavily on vehicles like jeepneys, taxis,
tricycles, and pedicabs. However, many city roads are in poor condition, and planning and
traffic management are insufficient. Traffic control devices often don't meet standards. Buses are vital in Metro
Manila but not so much in other cities and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) mainly serves Metro Manila and
receives subsidies. These issues contribute to traffic congestion, longer travel times, missed
economic opportunities, and increased air pollution in many urban areas.

INTERMODAL INTEGRATION

The Philippines has developed highways, ports, and airports, but the many agencies incharge
of these do not coordinate. They also do not collaborate closely with economic development
authorities. As a result, they plan for each mode of transportation without thinking how they
all fit together or how they may assist businesses such as manufacturing, farming, and tourism
thrive. This frequently leads to unwise judgments, such as the construction of new ports and
airports when strengthening existing road links would have been more prudent. This issue
emerges as a result of the agencies' lack of strong planning ability and coordination.

GOVERNANCE AND INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY

The capacity of transport agencies to undertake procurement, financial management, and implement
quality control continues to be weak. For example, in 2007, the Department of Public Works and
Highways (DPWH) disbursed just 66% of its budget. Technical capacity in planning, intermodal
integration, project appraisal, and monitoring is also insufficient. DPWH has not yet been able
to take full advantage of the information technology (IT)-enabled planning and programming
systems developed with funding from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

TRANSPORTATION AS A SYSTEM and THEPHILIPPINE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

Transportation system is a system that involves facilities that implements, coordinates,

and unifies the means and equipment necessary for the movement of passengers or goods.
Transportation systems seek to reduce transport costs and improve delivery times through
effective timetabling and route management.

Implementing a transportation system can help in the delivery of goods and personnel
to their destinations in a timely manner. This in turn increases the efficiency of vehicle use, as
the same vehicle can be used for “multi-drop” jobs, such as bus services or home delivery
networks, far more effectively when their routes are planned rather than being generated on
the spot. Periodic re-evaluations and the development of alternative routes allow for timely
changes to the transportation system in order to maintain efficiency.

COMPONENTS OF A TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

Vehicle

Vehicles are machines that move objects or traffic (people/goods). They may be used
inland, water, air, and even space transportation. Vehicles used in land transportation may be
as small as bicycle and motorcycles, to large buses, cars, trains, and trucks. Even heavy
equipment used in constructions like backhoes can be used as means of transportation. Water
and wind transportation use boats, ferries, ships, overseas and moving cargos, airplanes,
helicopters, and jets, which all transfer both human and products for trade. There are also
vehicles like blimps or hot air balloons and yachts, which mainly purposed for leisure.

Guideway

Guideways are an important part of our transportation systems for the reason that
these are where vehicles move along. The guideway often performs two necessary tasks at the
same time: directional control for the vehicle; and support to hold the vehicle or material in
place. Guideways are often overlooked because they are everywhere. Land guideways are
fixed system, often relying on rails, concrete paths, conveyors, and shafts to guide and
support the vehicles and materials that travel over, on, or through it. Footpaths, bike paths,
hiking trails, and roads are examples of simple guideways. Highways and roadways are the
most prevalent examples of guideways since they can be found almost everywhere. Our
highway systems carry enormous amounts of traffic, sometimes beyond their designed
capacity.

Operations Plan

The set of procedures by which traffic and vehicles are moved over the guideway,
including schedules or timetables, crew assignments, and control systems are called operations
plans. Control systems can be in different forms. They can be as small as signs, signals, road
markings, barriers, and speed bumps to as big as stations and tollgates. Air transportation use
signals and internal communications from control towers and a systematic and scheduled time
of departures to avoid conflict midair. Water transportation has terminals such as ports and
harbors, which are serve as shelter, and/or loading and unloading spots for shipping boats.
Lighthouses can also be an example of control system as it serves a beacon for navigational
aide.

TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES

The Philippines being an archipelagic country will tend to have lots of water
transportation system but throughout the country, urban public transport is dominated by
road-based modes of transportation such as jeepneys, taxis, tricycles, and pedicabs, some of
which provide door-to door service.

TYPE OF VEHICLE 2007 2013

CARS 751, 092 868, 148
JEEPNEYS (Utility Vehicles) 1, 602, 619 1, 794, 572
TRUCKS 30, 159 31, 665
TRAILERS 281, 261 358, 445
TRAILERS 24, 356 40, 145
MOTORCYCLES & TRICYCLES 2, 647, 574 4, 250, 667
SPORT UTILITYVEHICLES (SUVs) 192, 991 346, 396
TOTAL 5, 530, 052 7, 690, 038

Table 2.1: COMPARATIVE STATISTICS ON MOTOR VEHICLES BY TYPE

PSA 2013 Philippine Yearbook

The number of motor vehicles that were registered in the Land Transportation Office
(LTO) may be too much for the Philippines’ road transportation system as many urban road
networks are inadequate and poorly maintained.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is the branch of the
government that is mandated to undertake (a) the planning of infrastructure, such as national
roads and bridges, flood control, water resources projects and other public works, and (b) the
design, construction, and maintenance of national roads and bridges, and major flood control
systems. By, 2013, the DPWH has recorded a total of 32,227 kilometers of national road
length throughout the Philippines.

NATIONAL ROAD LENGTH BY SURFACE TYPE (kilometers)

EARTH 58
GRAVEL 5, 396
ASPHALT 9, 596
CONCRETE 17,177
TOTAL 32, 227

TABLE 2.1 NATIONAL ROAD LENGTH, 2013

 Source: PSA 2013 Philippine Yearbook

ROAD CLASSIFICATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

1. National Roads
 National Primary
 Directly connects Major Cities (at least around 100,000 people)
 NOTE: Cities within Metropolitan areas are not covered by the criteria
 National Secondary∙ Directly connects Cities to National Primary Roads, except in
Metropolitan Area
 Directly connects Major Ports and Ferry Terminals to National Primary Road
∙Directly connects Major Airports to National Primary Road
 Directly connects Tourist Service Centers to National Primary Roads or other-
∙Directly connects Cities (not included in the category of Major Cities)
 Directly connects Provincial Capitals within the same Region
 Directly connects to Major National Government Infrastructure to National Primary
Roads or Other National Secondary Roads
 National Tertiary
 Other existing roads under DPWH which perform a local function
2. Provincial Roads (Local Roads)
 Connect Cities and Municipalities without traversing National Roads
 Connect National Roads to Barangays through rural areas
 Connect to Major Provincial Government Infrastructure
3. Municipal and City Roads (Local Roads)4 Roads within the Poblacion
 Roads that connect to Provincial and National Roads
 Roads that provide Inter-Barangay connections to Major Municipal and City
Infrastructure without traversing Provincial Roads
4. Barangay Roads (Local Roads)
 Other Public Roads (officially turned over) within the Barangay and not covered in the
above definitions.
5. Expressways
 Highways with limited access, normally with interchanges; may include facilities for
levying tolls for passage in an open or closed system.

Rail transportation in the Philippines includes three rapid transit lines and one commuter
rail line: Manila Light Rail Transit System (Lines 1 and 2), Manila Metro Rail Transit System
(Line 3), and PNR Metro South Commuter Line, respectively.

Almost all public transportation operations were stopped because of the pandemic
caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID 19), which mainly affects the country’s rail transit
system. In June of 2020, operations were resumed with restrictions on number of passengers
the trains could accommodate which in turn reduced the daily average ridership. The average
daily ridership of the LRT-1 is 66,550, which is a decrease of 87.69% from 500,000.
Meanwhile, the MRT-3 had an average daily passenger of 280,000 to 300,000 for 2019. With a
current daily average ridership of 39,187, the MRT-3 had a decrease in ridership of about
77.81 to 86percent.

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

system. There are about 1250 ports in the Philippines, and about 1000 are the government-
owned ports, which may also fall under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA),
the Cebu Ports Authority, or other government agencies or local government units. These
ports are classified into two, in which 429 are fishing ports and 821 commercial ports.

In 2014, a total of 214,705,269 metric tons of cargo throughput and 55,990,029

passenger traffic was recorded which was about 6.3% and 3.9% change from the previous
year, respectively.

In recent years, there has been significant development of roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) ferry
services, which are aimed at providing an alternative to traditional long-distance interisland
shipping services. The ro-ro system allows vehicles to drive onto and off ro-ro ferries without
loading or offloading of cargo. Because this eliminates cargo-handling labor and equipment,
and reduces the amount of time cargo is required to be in port, reductions in sea transport
costs can be considerable.

Air transportation mostly involves airports and there are 215 airports in the Philippines,
of which 85 are government-owned and controlled and the rest are privately owned and
operated. Regulation over airports and aviation in the Philippines lies with the Civil Aviation
Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). The CAAP's classification system, introduced in 2008,
rationalizes the previous Air Transportation Office (ATO) system of airport classification.

In the current classification system, 85 airports owned by the national government are
placed into one of three main categories:

1) International airports
 Airports capable of handling international flights and have border control facilities.
 Airports in this category include airports that currently serve, or previously served,
international destinations.
 There are currently 12 airports in this category.
2) Principal airports
Airports which serve domestic destinations and is subdivided into two types:
i. Class 1 principal airports
 Airports capable of serving jet aircraft with a capacity of at least 100 seats (but
could be 70).
 There are 13 airports under this sub-category.
ii. Class 2 principal airports
 Airports capable of serving propeller aircraft with a capacity of at least 19 seats.
 There are 19 airports under this sub-category, most of which have regularly
scheduled air service.
3) Community airports
 Airports that are used primarily as Regional and Local Airports or for General aviation.
 There are currently 41 airports in this category.