Skip to main content

Smart data to help manage congestion in the Philippines

Traffic management agencies and city planners will soon have access to real-time data to better manage traffic flows on the streets of Cebu City and Metro Manila. The World Bank, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and Grab, a third-party ride booking app provider, have launched the OpenTraffic initiative, which it is hoped will help address traffic congestion and road safety challenges.
May 5, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

Traffic management agencies and city planners will soon have access to real-time data to better manage traffic flows on the streets of Cebu City and Metro Manila.

The 2000 World Bank, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and Grab, a third-party ride booking app provider, have launched the OpenTraffic initiative, which it is hoped will help address traffic congestion and road safety challenges.

Grab and the World Bank have been developing free, open-source tools that translate Grab’s voluminous driver GPS data into traffic statistics, including speeds, flows, and intersection delays. These statistics power big data open source tools such as OpenTraffic, for analysing traffic speeds and flows.

In the near future, traffic statistics derived through OpenTraffic will be fed into another application called DRIVER or Data for Road Incident Visualisation, Evaluation, and Reporting for road incident recording and analysis. This application, developed by the World Bank, will help engineering units to prioritise crash-prone areas for interventions and improve emergency response.

“Using big data is one of the potential solutions to the challenges faced by our transport systems. Through this we can provide accurate, real-time information for initiatives that can help alleviate traffic congestion and improve road safety,” said DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya.

“By leveraging advances in open-software and big data collaborations with companies like Grab, transport managers and city planners can have access to the most advanced congestion management analytical tools available,” said Mara Warwick, World Bank country director.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • USDOT expands real-time travel information with US$2.6 million in grants
    February 25, 2015
    The US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has announced $2.571 million in grants to expand the use of real-time travel information in 13 highly congested urban areas across ten states. Known as integrated corridor management, or ICM, the grants will help selected cities or regions combine numerous information technologies and real-time travel information from highway, rail and transit operations. Such tools can help engineers make better decisions about congestion managemen
  • Huawei addresses congested, separated rail networks with cloud solution
    December 20, 2024
    A shift to a cloud-based operating regime solves the problems of trying to make cluttered, geographically-discrete terrestrial systems work together
  • Virtual traffic management centres, a new direction in traffic monitoring
    January 30, 2012
    David Crawford picks up a new direction trend in traffic monitoring The surprise winner in the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) category of the recently-announced 2011 OSMOSE (Open Source for MObile and SustainablE city) Awards for European innovations in urban transport, is the Danish city of Aalborg - which doesn't have a TMC. Alternatively, one might consider its 'virtual' TMC as a signpost for the future in medium-sized cities.
  • Advanced traffic management amid urbanisation
    July 30, 2020
    There is no room for error on the crowded roads in many cities: Andrew Watson of Huawei explains why AI is a perfect tool to help urban authorities and transportation agencies look after people in busy traffic