Assessing the Costs of the Pedestrianization of Avenida in the City of Manila
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Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.6, 2007 ASSESSING THE COSTS OF THE PEDESTRIANIZATION OF AVENIDA IN THE CITY OF MANILA Konstantine KOH Crispin Emmanuel DIAZ Associate Consultant Associate Professor Transportas Consulting School of Urban and Regional Planning Sikatuna Village, Quezon City University of the Philippines Philippines Diliman, Quezon City Fax: +632-921-7775 Philippines E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +632-929-1637 E-mail: [email protected] Hussein LIDASAN Associate Professor School of Urban and Regional Planning University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City Philippines Fax: +632-929-1637 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: In 2003, as part of the City of Manila’s urban renewal program, a section of Rizal Avenue, which is a major national arterial road, was pedestrianized, thereby closing the road to vehicular traffic. Because of this, vehicles that were originally traveling along this road section were diverted to the adjacent local streets which do not have enough capacity to handle heavy traffic volumes. Coupled with heavy volumes of pedestrians and high roadside friction in the downtown area, this resulted in massive congestion and travel delays. Commuters have also suffered with the increase in in-vehicle and out-of-vehicle travel time. On the part of the jeepney drivers, the re-routing meant longer travel distances, hence additional fuel consumption, but without a corresponding increase in fares. This paper attempts to estimate these costs brought about by the project to gain an understanding of its impact on society. Key Words: pedestrianization, economic costs, Manila streets. 1. INTRODUCTION In 2003, as part of the City of Manila’s urban renewal program, a section of Rizal Avenue was pedestrianized, thereby closing the road to vehicular traffic. The portion that was pedestrianized was from CM Recto to Carriedo, which is one of the major road sections of the downtown Manila area. As mentioned in the media, one of the main objectives for the project was “to bring businesses back along Avenida by making it a haven for shoppers and people on a stroll”. It hopes to revive the Golden Era of the area when major cinemas and businesses lined up both flanks of the road, before urban decay brought about by poor maintenance and property management took over the area. Historically, Rizal Avenue, or more commonly known as Avenida, has been one of the major roads of Metro Manila going all the way back to the Spanish era. It connects the Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela (CAMANAVA) area in the north to Manila’s downtown core (Sta. Cruz, Binondo and Intramuros), as well as Pasay City in the south. The first light rail transit in the Philippines, LRT-1, was built along Rizal Avenue, underlying its importance Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.6, 2007 in the overall road network in Metro Manila. Under the categories of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), it is classified as one of the radial roads (R-9). 2. THE PEDESTRIANIZATION OF AVENIDA Unlike other pedestrianization projects in the city, this project involved the closing of a national road which is one of the busiest thoroughfares in Metro Manila. The previous pedestrianization projects in Manila like Carriedo, Muelle del Rio, Muelle del Banco Nacional, and R. Papa were smaller local roads or waterfronts that did not have the same heavy traffic volumes such as in Avenida. In fact, an issue was raised by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) about the legality of the implementation of such project, claiming that local governments do not have an authority over national roads. Figure 1 Location map of Avenida Pedestrianization Project and surrounding areas Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.6, 2007 Because of the closure of Avenida, vehicles that are normally traveling along this road section have been diverted to the many narrow local streets in the area. For the jeepneys, a re-routing scheme was put in place, wherein the northbound and southbound vehicles now run on separate one-way local roads (see Figure 2). Figure 2 Re-routing plan after the pedestrianization of Avenida 3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM One major effect that the Avenida Pedestrianization project has brought to the area is massive traffic congestion, which was mainly brought about by the decrease of road space available for vehicular movement. The distance of the Avenida road section between Recto and Carriedo that was closed off to traffic is about half a kilometer. Aside from Avenida, the Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.6, 2007 project also effectively closed off the perpendicular streets immediately adjacent to Avenida since they had become dead ends at the junction of Avenida. Adding all these distances up brings a total of about 1.2 km of road space that cannot be utilized for normal vehicular circulation anymore. This reduction of road space resulted in a sharp increase of vehicles to the adjacent local roads, which, in the first place, weren’t designed to handle such heavy traffic volumes. They don’t have enough capacity to absorb this traffic, with most of the local roads in the area being one-way, two lane streets. While most of the local roads in the area have sufficient carriageway widths for two-lane traffic, the effective or clear carriageway width is reduced by road-side parking, sidewalk vendors, and scattered garbage present in almost all streets. Many of the sidewalks are also being used as extension of the commercial establishments, with merchandise on display and for sale at the sidewalks. This then pushes the pedestrians into the streets which further increases the road-side friction. The high volume of bicycles/pedicabs plying in these streets also reduces the effective capacity of the roads. This paper attempts to present a preliminary assessment of the costs brought about the Avenida pedestrianization, specifically with regards to transportation. This deals with the costs of travel time delay and additional fuel consumption. A brief discussion of the other economic costs that can be attributed to the Avenida pedestrianization project is also outlined. As this paper is an initial foray into the subject matter, most of the data needed for analysis are not readily available. As such, some of the data used were culled from various secondary information sources, including commissioned studies and government reports. 4. CONGESTION EFFECTS Table 1 below shows the survey results of traffic counts conducted at different streets within the Sta. Cruz area on March 2007. Table 1 Comparative daily traffic volumes of streets in downtown Manila1 No. Daily Width Road name Road Section Direction of Volume (in m.) lanes (in pcu) CM Recto Between Avenida and Mapua Eastbound 9.6 3 22,396 CM Recto Between T. Mapua and T. Alonzo Westbound 10.6 3 12,467 T. Mapua Between D. Jose and Recto Soutbound 9.2 3 10,371 T. Mapua Between Recto and Ongpin Soutbound 6.2 2 13,243 T. Alonzo Between D. Jose and Recto Northbound 5.9 2 3,695 T. Alonzo Between D. Jose and Recto Soutbound 5.9 2 4,078 T. Alonzo Between Recto and Ongpin Northbound 3.6 1 3,152 Plaza Sta. Cruz Between Ongpin and Dimasalang Westbound 17.5 5 14,632 Plaza Sta. Cruz Between Ongpin and Dimasalang Eastbound 15.2 5 14,430 F. Torres Between CM Recto and Soler Northbound 7.1 2 9,019 Evangelista Between Recto and Raon Northbound 8.1 2 5,558 Soler Between T. Alonzo and T. Mapua Westbound 10.2 2 3,049 Ongpin Between T. Mapua and Raon Eastbound 6.6 2 11,307 Estero Cegado Between C. Palanca and Carriedo Northbound 7.0 2 4,687 1 – All counts were conducted on a typical weekday, for a period of 14 hours (6am to 8pm) Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.6, 2007 Because of this congestion, vehicles travel at slower speeds, and hence, delays experienced by the motorists are very prevalent in the area. These delays are further compounded by the many bottlenecks along the way caused by loading/unloading passengers, crossing pedestrians and other road-side friction. Before the pedestrianization of Avenida, it takes about 3-5 minutes to reach from the corner of Avenida and Doroteo Jose to Plaza Sta. Cruz and vice versa . After the pedestrianization, the average time it takes to get from Doroteo Jose to Plaza Sta. Cruz using T. Mapua is about 13-15 minutes going southbound, and about 10-12 minutes going northbound if using F. Torres, and 18-20 minutes if using Evangelista . Along CM Recto, pre-pedestrianization, it takes about 5-7 minutes to cover the stretch between T. Alonzo and Evangelista. Post-pedestrianization, it takes about 3-5 minutes more. Table 2 Travel times and average delays per corridor (units in minutes) Range of travel Range of travel Ave. Time Corridor times before times after Delay pedestrianization pedestrianization Along CM Recto 5-7 8-12 5 Along T. Mapua 3-5 13-15 10 Along F. Torres 3-5 10-12 7 Along Evangelista 3-5 18-20 15 Along T. Alonzo 3-5 13-15 10 Source: Various travel time studies 5. COST OF DELAYS To estimate the costs of delays, the value-of-time (V.O.T.) computation shall be applied. Shown in Table 3 below are the value-of-time costs for each mode obtained from the 1998 Metro Manila Urban Transport Improvement Project (MMUTRIP) Study. The 2007 figures were converted from the 1998 rates using an assumed escalation rate of 8%.