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New Transport System Needed to Make Davao a BIMP-EAGA Capital

DAVAO CITY - To have a strong competitive edge within the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), Davao needs adequate infrastructure support, particularly in urban transportation system.

"The Davao metropolitan area should have a good mechanism for a continuing program in transport-related policy review and analysis," according to University of the Philippines in Mindanao-School of Management Prof. Manuel Javier said.

Javier said this is imperative because the emerging Davao metropolis is expected to become an international gateway and transhipment hub in the southern island of Mindanao.

The UP-Mindanao professor made a research on the "Transport and Traffic Management in the Davao Metropolitan Area", a study on the metropolitanization of Davao which had been undertaken in the past six years.

Traffic management seems to be the most accepted as a metropolitan problem, according to Javier. "One may advocate that the Davao metropolitan area may be called a de facto capital of BIMP-EAGA," he said.

The area, he added, has the distribution and processing functions that will be conducive to the formation of an industrial logistics center in the EAGA region.

Davao City's growth is a mixed blessing as rapid growth also means more pressure on roads, sewers, schools and the environment, Javier pointed out.

Thus, the challenge facing Davao is to sustain this growth without losing its quality of life.

The city has the highest motor vehicle density in Southern Mindanao, at 37 vehicles per square kilometer of road. This was followed by General Santos City at 36.58.

Of the 55,047 registered vehicles in the city in 1995, 59.2 percent were cars and jeepneys, 15.23 were trucks and buses, 24.24 percent motorcycles while trailers made up 1.34 percent.

The whole of region XI had a motor vehicle density ratio of only 7.64. The research shows that high motor vehicle density and the continuously increasing vehicle population is causing traffic problems specially during peak hours.

At least 48 major traffic choke points within the city's center have been identified by the Traffic Management Center.

A study on the Mindanao portion of the Pan-Philippine highway undertaken by the Japan International Coordinating Agency and the Public Works Department in 1994 show that the Panabo-Davao Province and Junction Panacan have the heaviest traffic volume of 8,866 vehicles.

In the 1996 reports of the DPWH and the Davao Integarted Development Plan (DIDP), the traffic volume on major roads particularly the Panabo-Davao City and the Santa Cruz-Davao City boundaries have been increasing.

The JICA study on the Mindanao portion of the Pan-Philippine highway projects traffic volume between Panabo and the Panacan Junction to jump almost 400 percent from a level of 8,865 average annual daily traffic in 1994 to 41,061 in 2020.

The city government has proposed an urban rail transit system that will serve coastal built up areas in the city as well as the neighboring municipalities of Davao Province and Davao del Sur.

Without the rail transit system, it is evident that traffic congestion on urban roads will get worse.

Among the projects suggested in the DIDP Master Plan are the rapid passenger ferry services between Davao Gulf coastal areas and the Samal Island Ferry Service Expansion.

"The ferry services will connect the areas along the Davao Gulf and will establish alternative means of transport that will connect most of the Provincial Agro-Industrial Centers and other municipalities," Javier said.

It has been proposed that the ferry be operated and managed by the private sector while the ports should be supervised by local governments.

Javier said the Samal Island Bridge Project is expected to improve the livelihood and social conditions of the people in the island.

The establishment of some central functions and facilities related to the EAGA cooperation in Davao and in the Island Garden of Samal linked by the planned bridge will also enhance the status and image of the DIDP Area not only in the Philippines but also all over the world.

A pre-feasibility report on the project show that the island's population may reach 200,000 by 2016 and 250,000 by 2022.

While 64 percent of the 280 sq.km area may be protected, the remaining land area can accommodate urban-based activities such as free trade zone, offshore banking and advanced marine science institute.

"Without the bridge, the economy of the Island Garden City of Samal may be left behind in the development of the DIDP Area," Javier said.

With the bridge, he added, the Island's economy will be integrated with the rest of the DIDP Gulf Area economy and will grow at 4 percent per annum.

An integrated transport system, for the Davao metropolitan area which includes the construction of circumferential and radial roads has been proposed to disperse the traffic movement as well as to prevent traffic in the central business district.

The Metropolitan Area Light Rail Transit Project proposes the establishment of an urban LRT system with a total of 37 stations. The stations will serve as the inter-town and regional link of the 87.7 km coastal built up area of the city as well as the neighboring area.

Under the Davao City Comprehensive Development Plan, the LRT project is composed of two phases--Phase 1 from Panacan to Toril and Phase 2 Toril-Santa Cruz and Panacan to Panabo.

"A population of more than one million is required for an LRT system to be justified," Javier said.

The JICA study team projected the urban population of Davao to be 1.05 million by 2004 and the population of the emerging Metropolitan Davao will be 1.42 million by 2010.

While the establishment of an LRT system will improve Davao's traffic situation, he said, it has high initial investment cost for the construction of the structure and the stock yard, installment of telecommunication facilities, purchase of the rolling stocks and other expenses.

Javier said the project requires an increased family income in the city and the existence of other business development associated with the LRT, to enhance the viability of the project and attractiveness to investors such as operation of station buildings and housing estates development around the stations.

The Urban Traffic Management Program which includes the installation of signals and road signs at heavy-traffic intersections, widening of bottlenecks and intersections, has been adopted.

The program requires that heavy-traffic intersections are to be vertically separated by structures like overpass, underpass and flyover. Various groups have made studies on the required infrastructure projects for the Davao area.

However, most of these have either been put on hold or are still in the planning stage. "To advance Davao's competitiveness, adequate infrastructure support particularly in the urban transportation system have to be in place," Javier said.

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