Assessment of inter-municipal PUV Services in Southern Iloilo, Philippines

The study focuses on improving the transportation service operation in Southern Iloilo by following the requirements of the Local Public Transport Route Plan (LPTRP). The LPTRP aims to give jurisdiction to the local government unit to implement policies, services, routes, among others. The LPTRP was implemented in the study area to address problems such as lack of specific loading-unloading locations and the removal of tricycles traversing the National Roads. To be able to address these problems, statistical analyses such as correlation, regression, and category analyses were used to generate trips at the household level. These analyses were used to show the existing trips and forecasted future trips. Existing condition were also modelled using EMME/4. EMME/4 model was also used to evaluate proposed service operation scenarios. In the study, two scenarios were compared based on passenger demand as modelled. The scenarios proposed vary in the transport service operation. The transport service operations in Scenario 1 introduced limited stop services, express services, and local services while for Scenario 2, the proposed services are only limited stop services, and local services. Scenario 2 was selected as more suitable for the study area since the passenger demand in this scenario is satisfactorily utilized for all lines. The selected scenario was evaluated and compared to the existing service operation by comparing the number of units requirement as calculated using RMC formula, passenger demand, travel time, and length travel. Aside from this, the proposed scenario also restricted the access of tricycles from traversing the National Highways. The existing and proposed scenarios were also compared using different indicators namely frequency, utilization, and reliability as mentioned in the LPTRP standards. Based on the results, the scenario where only limited stops service and local services showed improvement in terms of the mentioned service standards. Based on the results of the study, the restricted access of tricycles along National Roads, and implementation of local services and limited stops services are expected to improve the transportation service operation in Southern Iloilo