CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Transportation and Communications yesterday started household interview surveys in randomly selected houses in different barangays of the city as part of the P32-million study for the Development of a Public Transportation Strategic Plan for Metro Cebu.
The survey will run until July 17 and will be conducted randomly in two percent of the total household population of Cebu City.
The objective of the survey is to generate information on passenger travel demand here which will be the primary input in developing a public transport strategic plan in Metro Cebu.
Aside from Cebu City, a separate survey will be conducted in the cities of Danao, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Talisay and Carcar and the towns of Compostela, Liloan, Consolacion, Cordova, Minglanilla, Naga and San Fernando which make up the rest of Metro Cebu.
City Planning and Development Coordinator Nigel Paul Villarete said that study is aimed at determining the transport habits, characteristics or the daily transport pattern in the metropolitan area.
Specifically, it seeks to determine the economic status of the riding public in relation to how they travel everyday, where they originate, where they go, where they pass, and their daily mode of transportation whether bus, public utility jeepney, motorcycle, private car and trisikad among others.
“After everything is settled, we will now know the travel pattern and the ridership. We can now go to strategic plan on future public transportation,” Villarete said.
“What we want is to come up with easiest possible and the cheapest possible transportation. Cheap in terms of the cost of infrastructure needed and the actual cost of transportation or the fare. And when we say easiest, we are looking for the one with the least transfers and least inconvenience,” he added.
Villarete said that the output of the study may be of use later in the study for the Bus Rapid Transit.
There will be 84 enumerators and eight supervisors from the Design Science Inc. and Renardet SA, the companies commissioned by DOTC to conduct the survey.
The survey was supposedly done last March, but since it was then approaching summer vacation, they decided to move it to this month.
Villarete said that it is important that the survey is done during schooldays because students comprise a significant portion of the total population of the riding public. (FREEMAN NEWS)