Cebu City Of Philippines Voted World's Worst Place To Be A Driver?
Think New York's City traffic is the worst? Wait till you get to drive around Philippines Cebu City, rated in a recent study as the "worst place in the world to be a driver."
The study took into consideration traffic density and severity, quality of roads and infrastructure, road safety, driver services, social economics, and "wazeyness" or the "happiness and helpfulness of the Waze community." 
The study, which focused on countries and cities with more than 20,000 active Waze users monthly "to ensure data accuracy and fair market comparison," used a single numeric score from 1 (miserable) to 10 (satisfying). 
With a driver satisfaction index of 1.15, Cebu was "ranked as the least satisfying, or the worst place in the world to be a driver," Waze said in its study. 
Cebu, which wasn't ranked in last year's study, was followed in the list by Bogor, Indonesia; San Salvador, El Salvador; and Denpasar and Bandung in Indonesia. 
The Philippines, however, was ranked as the second worst place to be a driver.
"El Salvador, the Philippines, Guatemala, Panama and Indonesia are the least satisfying places to drive globally, largely due to intense traffic and low Wazeyness and socioeconomic factors," Waze said in the study.
Users ranked Cebu's traffic an abysmal 0.58, while the safety and quality of its roads were rated 2.07 and 2.50, respectively.
The city got a "wazeyness" score of 1.35, while its social economics index, which takes into account the impact of gas prices and the ratio of cars to population was rated 0.
- No data was provided for the city's driver services, which include the number of gas stations, car services and parking lots.
- The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has yet to issue a statement on the study.
- The agency recently submitted to the Senate its list of priority projects and programs should Congress grant President Duterte emergency powers to address the traffic crisis in the country.
For the second time, the Netherlands was considered the most satisfying place in the world to drive in for its "smooth traffic conditions and solid road quality and infrastructure.
"
It was followed by France, the United States, the Czech Republic and Sweden.
France dominated the list of cities best to drive in, as nine of its metro cities were included in the Top 10.
Source: Agency
PHILIPPINES LOSING BILLIONS IN TRAFFIC JAMS
MANILA, Philippines - If time is money, then the Philippines is losing P2.4 billion a day
in potential income due to traffic congestion that eats up time that
could have been used for productive pursuits, Socioeconomic Planning
Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.
Balisacan, National Economic Development Authority (Neda) chief,
was quoting a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica)
that the government has tapped to help come up with a transportation
development road map for the country.
“It’s a no-brainer that we need to boost infrastructure. We have a
huge backlog in almost all types of infrastructure,” Balisacan said,
adding that the government intends to invest in more roads, bridges,
railways, airports, and sea ports during the remainder of President
Benigno Aquino III’s term.
- Compared with neighboring countries, the Philippines spends significantly less on public infrastructure at only 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012, against the 5 percent average spending in other Southeast Asian countries.
- Balisacan said that the Aquino administration wants to boost public infrastructure spending to at least 5 percent of GDP by 2016 to compete with other countries for foreign investments.
Earlier this week, Budget Secretary
Florencio Abad said the government intends to increase its budget for
infrastructure from about P400 billion last year to at least P800
billion in 2016, to reach the target of 5-percent infra spending to GDP
ratio.
Fast-track projects
Abad said the government has embarked on an
infrastructure rationalization plan under which government processes
are streamlined to fast-track infrastructure projects.
“We are accelerating our infrastructure
spending and adjusting procedures to ensure (the) timely implementation
of infrastructure projects and to improve the absorptive capacity of
government agencies,” Abad told the Inquirer.
Absorptive capacity refers to the capability of government agencies to spend allocated funds on time.
One administrative reform that the budget
secretary cited is the adoption of the advance procurement system that
would allow line agencies to start procuring goods and services needed
for infrastructure projects scheduled for 2014.
Another reform, Abad said, is the
streamlining of payment processes to help government agencies settle
their obligations to contractors and suppliers within a shorter period
of time.
The budget chief also said that the
President has instructed the Department of Public Works and Highways to
take over the supervision of infrastructure projects of other government
agencies—such as health facilities under the Department of Health—to
help complete them within a shorter time frame.
“There is a huge room for increased infrastructure spending, and we want to maximize it,” Abad said.
The Department of Budget and Management on
Friday reported that public infrastructure spending rose year on year by
35.6 percent to reach P104.6 billion from January to May this year.
The
amount was equivalent to 2.6 percent of estimated GDP for the period.
Source: Inquirer
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
