Philippines Data Collection – Best Practices
Philippine’s first ever Roads and Traffic Expo and best practices for collecting traffic data in the Philippines.
Last week over 2000 visitors, 100 exhibitors and 100 speakers made the Philippine’s first ever Roads and Traffic Expo and Conference in Manila a resounding success.
The conference included keynote speakers and intriguing discussions on multiple subjects including:
- building smart cities with sustainable and shared transportation,
- traffic management and reducing congestion,
- data collection and analysis for safer roads and to inform future infrastructure,
- smart mobility and electric vehicles,
- active transport including promoting bike commuting for women.
To see photos from the Roads and Traffic Expo, scroll to the bottom of this page.
Collecting Quality Traffic Data in the Philippines
MetroCount CEO, Mike Kenny, was invited to speak about the challenges of collecting continuous traffic data in the Philippines and what automatic traffic counters (ATCs) work best for Filipino roads.
With over 25 years in the industry and experience implementing ATC systems in 120 countries around the globe, Mike shared these recommendations for the Philippines:
- be careful when using piezoelectric sensors on roads as they are easily compromised by Filipino weather, road movement and resurfacing;
- consider changing the Department of Public Works and Highways RTIA system to accept length-based classification instead;
- re-use existing inductive loops that aren’t currently working to gather data 24/7;
- retrofit them with a system that can accurately classify vehicles by length and gather time stamped data on speed, direction and volume;
- this is a quick and economical solution to make use of existing sensors and collect useful, accurate traffic data;
- use the RoadPod®VT portable tube counter for conducting short-term surveys and to provide high accuracy classification based on distance between each vehicle’s axle.
Confirming the best ATC solutions for the Philippines
Gregg Macaraig from Pilipinas Trapikom Corporation agrees with Mike’s recommendations, after carrying out a test in Tuy, Batangas.
The test included installing:
- a piezoelectric ATC,
- a dual inductive loop ATC and,
- a portable tube ATC on a local road.
The results confirmed that retrofitting dual loop systems with the RoadPod® VL will provide the highest quality data in the Philippines.
Read more about the test here.
The results of the Batangas test also led the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to allow the use of MetroCount piezo-piezo systems for automated traffic counting programs. However, it highlighted that length-based classification from dual-loops should be sufficient for the DPWH.
MetroCount’s presence in the Philippines has been growing steadily in recent years. Being a part of the conference in Manilla was a fantastic way for clients to ask questions face-to-face and learn more about data collection and analysis.
Photos from Roads and Traffic Expo, Manilla
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