Ride-Sharing Apps Provide Safe, Convenient Ride to Commuters

Traffic congestion in major thoroughfares is a major concern among commuters who often sacrifice themselves to wake up early and reach to the most accessible mode of transportation for them to get to work or school at the earliest possible time.

Long lines of passengers waiting on the LRT and MRT platforms or bus stops have been part of daily experience in Metro Manila or other urban areas in the country.

With the emergence of modern technology, ride sharing apps such as Uber and Grab are gaining popularity among motorists and commuters. These apps arrange shared rides on short notice through smartphones wherein a traveler requests for a ride to their destination while GPS navigation devices are utilized to determine a driver’s route and arrange the shared ride.

Kat Nasayao, who works for a travel management company, regularly uses Uber as drivers know the easiest and fastest routes through the use of the traffic navigation app Waze from her house in Caloocan to her office in Makati City.

“I use Uber because of safety and convenience. It is safe as you don’t have to go somewhere else to find for a cab as Uber drivers will pick you up at your preferred destination. They are also courteous and service oriented as they don’t choose their passengers. Also, if you don’t have cash, you may pay using credit card,” she said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

Yves Gonzalez, head of public policy of Uber Philippines and former traffic director of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), said that ride-sharing helped in reducing congestion in major thoroughfares in Metro Manila.

According to him, around 300,000 new cars traverse the roads annually, which lead to the current horrendous traffic situation in the metropolis. The Philippines stands to lose up to Php 6 billion per day in 2030 unless the government increase its spending on infrastructure projects and improve the mass transportation system based on a study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Gonzalez said that 79 percent who used the Uber app reduced their usage of privately-owned vehicles.

“Ridesharing is much cost efficient as it reduces the number of trips by private cars in roads and environment friendly as it reduces carbon dioxide emissions. It is also much affordable to rideshare instead of buying new cars,” he said in his speech at the first ICT summit on easing traffic congestion held in Makati Shangrila earlier this week.

He disclosed that Uber will launch its latest service Uber Commute, which enables daily solo trips by drivers to be a shared drive on Nov. 16 and piloted in Manila, Makati and Bonifacio Global City (BGC).

“Uber Commute seeks to create a new carpooling product for Metro Manila such that people who drive from their home to their work on a daily basis would be able to share their drive to somebody who lives in the same area,” according to Gonzalez.

Uber currently offers Uber X a ‘budget’ option for riders that allows them to reach quickly to their destinations; Uber Hop which enables commuters heading in the same direction to share a ride during rush hour for a flat fare and Uber Pool which allows a rider to share their ride and split its cost with another Uber rider headed in the same direction.

For his part, Grab Philippines country manager Brian Cu said the firm was working with the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and World Bank to use their real-time data into the open traffic platform to process anonymous positions of vehicles and smartphones into real-time and historical traffic statistics.

The open traffic data platform could help identify routes for public utility vehicles (PUVs) and identify areas that need immediate response during events such as traffic accidents and road obstructions. It can also analyze data to locate roads that are congested.

Grab also supports the government’s move to develop a multimodal transport system in the country as most of their riders use the app as feeder for modes of public transportation such as premium point to point (P2P) buses and the LRT/MRT railway systems.

“We aim to create the safest transportation platform and make transportation accessible to all through the use of technology,” Cu said.

“Safe and reliable rides for passengers can only be achieved through the use of real-time data,” he reiterated.

Grab currently offers Grab Car a car booking app and Grab Taxi a smartphone-based taxi booking and dispatching service. It operates and has offices in Metro Manila, Bacolod, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo and Baguio City.

Meanwhile, the MMDA recently announced its partnership with Waze for its Connected Citizens Program which will enable to use real time traffic data from drivers to manage traffic congestion and make better informed planning decisions.

Established as a two-way data share, Waze provides partners with real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and slow-down information directly from drivers themselves. In exchange, MMDA provides real-time government-reported construction, crashes, road closure, and flood incidents to Waze to return one of the most succinct, thorough overviews of current road conditions today.

The DOTr has classified ride sharing apps under the category of transportation network vehicle service (TNVS).

TNVS will cover vehicles that provide pre-arranged transportation services for compensation, using an online-enabled application or platform technology to connect passengers with drivers using their personal vehicles. This will also allow ride-sharing service providers to accept regular passengers heading to any point of destination in the country. (PNA) RMA/ABP