Showing posts with label traffic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traffic. Show all posts

UBER Encourages Ride Sharing to Solve Manila Traffic

Thursday, November 09, 2017



Manila has evolved all throughout the years and it's public transportation had been moderately apt a few years ago, but now, everybody knows how it has gotten worse. EDSA has been largely congested and true enough, we're all experiencing the stress and economic impact in the Philippines. How do we solve traffic? How do we make plans work? Honestly, there's just so much cars out in Manila that only got one driver in them and those 4 other seats in sedans and other vehicles come wasted, and unnoticed. If only people started to make pooling and treated it like a normal thing, that would have been better. UBER wants to take a pro active approach, to solve the Manila's traffic is a tough task but they've got research to back it up today via a comissioned study of several cities in the ASEAN region done by The Boston Consulting Group.

Laurence Cua, the GM of UBER Philippines says "How many used ride sharing to go here today? We have a lot of sleepless nights, it's because we want to unlock the city. UBER provides a lot of things including the convenience of going places and we have been here for a number of years. The UBER app has evolved and what was once a simple idea has become a great one over the years. The cost of living has been high in the city, but unfortunately we spend even more because of the traffic congestion. We lose about 2.4 Billion pesos each day and all these time spent on sitting behind the car means there is also environmental cost. Our economy is going to play an important role in the growing region of te ASEAN. In the Philippines, it's so sad to say TRAFFIC has become a part of our daily lives. Not only that, even parking is a lot problematic. Now who among you have said you are late because of the traffic? Who among you spend so much time finding a parking space? Close to 80% of people have been late because of it in the country and people really feel bad about it. We found a lot of interesting insights when we did this survey, including having 402 hours of being stuck in traffic every year. Now it takes 2.3x more effort to actually get to your destination which means Php 100,000 per person per year in Metro Manila. But it's not about the cars, but the way we use it. If you see other cars on EDSA, you often see people in cars with only one driver, and there are 4 other seats there that are left unused. We need to improve reliability with ride sharing so people don't necessarily need to prepare. These days, cabbies still ask you where you'll go before you get to ride one. Being able to reliably get a car and make it affordable at a push of a button is a good thing. This is why we have UBER POOL. We maximize the use of each vehicle and in Manila almost 40% are on it. They use ride sharing more often at a much lower cost. People are now getting the idea of sharing their trips. That's like saving 2 Olympic sized swimming pools filled with Gas and we are heavily investing in this including self driving cars in the US. We are investing ahead, our goal is to make each person to share a car conveniently in our transport network. To reduce 90% of cars on the road. 7/10 people in Manila has already considered ride sharing as an alternative in owning a car and we are now encouraging people to use ride sharing to make our lives better. We are commited to be part of the solution. The personal car needs in Manila can be met with 1/3 of cars we have today, that's 1 Million cars off the road. We hope you enjoy riding together, to succeed, we could leverage this technology and #UnlockManila by #RideTogether "




Boston Consulting Group has done the research in heavily, dense, most populated cities in Asia including Manila and they know the demand of transportation still occurs. It happens in Manila every day, that's when congestion happens. We have to invest more in infrastructure, make more efficient use of our current assets (like trains, buses, cars) and it will have a big impact in traffic and congestion. Ride sharing can scale ridership demand. Increase more people per kilometer by pooling and do smart matching. 




Ride sharing can help by not making purchasing a car an option if ride sharing is efficient. You can have more passengers per vehicle and it could complement public transport. This would be great to optimize infrastructure for investment timing and get to outlying areas. It has improved cities in Asia and they hope it happens in Manila.

It's possible, so let's do our share!


KUMAGCOW
Fresh Blogs Fast!

The SOMA Bistro Sessions

Thursday, December 17, 2015




Today was a fun day to be in the south. So we headed to Green Sun in Chino Roces Extension to have dinner with friends at the The SOMA Bistro, the restaurant at the ground floor of the hotel. They've got a happy hour which includes an Open Mic session from 6-10PM every Thursday, and you know what happens when booze and I mix LOL. We all sing! 


They've got Pinoy Food and a couple more comfort giving grub to satisfy you, nearby offices, hotel guests as well. You can walk in if it's traffic in Makati (like it's not a regular thing lol!) or if you want to wait it out and drink a few bottles before you go home.


Aside from that lovely and soft Liempo up top, I had this Roast Beef Sandwich with fries on the side. It's quite soft, and very generous with the meat. I'd be really interested amping this up with blue cheese or something, or spike it up with something hot. If you haven't had dinner yet, this would be fine.


If you want to match something with beer, the Truffle Fries is good. It looks less here because Earthlingorgeous already had touched the darn bowl before I took a photo LOL. Truffle is my favorite in any dish, you gotta have it too!


They've got Buffalo Wings too for those who love it spicy. The regular serving is already moderately spiced so just ask for extras if you need to.


For those who love meat and seafood, they've got Surf and Turf on a plate. The standard size though, not quite that big but it does the job.


We also had the Four Cheese Pizza to go along with the wine and booze we had this night. I'd recommend this for groups 4 or more. Oh and yes, Green Sun is known for events, as they've got a room with 360 degree HD projector. It's perfect for launches and fashion shows too. 


Green Sun also has cruise ship like hotel rooms. Three types in very affordable prices. It's actually one of the favorite hangouts of celebrities which we'll never divulge haha. They rent DJ's and stuff for in the Executive rooms but sleep mostly in the Standard Twin and Queen Rooms too. They also package Function/Holding rooms for artists when you do have an event there. 


I also heard they've got a promo now where you can book two nights for the price of one. Stay period should be from December 22 - January 2, 2016. So if you're looking for a place to stay these holidays, this might just be it.

For reservations, visit www.thehotelatgreensun.com at 2285 Chino Roced Avenue Extension in Makati City. Call them today at (+632)5489200. I'm staying there soon too, and I do hope to get to bump in with Georgina Wilson and her whole crew on weekends. Wishful thinking? Nope! It's Green Sun!

Ciao!
KUMAGCOW
Fresh Blogs Fast! 



Success Story of a Public-Private Partnership: TV5 MMDA Metro Manila Traffic Navigator

Wednesday, August 03, 2011




MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino discusses something to Ms. Luchi Cruz Valdez over dinner at the Shangrila Edsa Plaza Hotel Palawan Ballroom.

W
hen PNOY (last year's SONA) called for corporations to work together with the government one of the first to heed his call was TV5. For starters they never thought of anything like this in the beginning. After brainstorming one lonely night they noticed some of the traffic updates that MMDA had on their whiteboard; what's funny was they kept on erasing this valuable data. Minds met and they did the next obvious thing. They digitized this information and got it online. Now this valuable information is available and has been helping thousands of Filipino commuters in the metro!

Paolo Bediones and Cheri Mercado hosted the event!





Now ranked in the top 10 most visited sites in the country, the TV5 MMDA Metro Manila Traffic Navigation site was launched formally this August 1st, 2011. TV5 Executives, MMDA Government Officials and the media were there to witness a momentous event in Philippine history. Only a few hundred thousand pesos of tax payers and private funds were used to set this all up which I think is ingenious even if MMDA was poorly funded this year. They used it wisely on information technologies perfectly designed and executed for the local Philippine transportation scene. They thought of the commuters and the people behind the wheel. I couldn't be more happier when I used it that time!

True enough, I had to leave the event a little early than usual because I had to rush back to the office. I gave this a shot and saw that C5 was a little better than EDSA. I got to Eastwood without a hitch even if my cab driver was on a snails pace. The information was real time so I already knew the situation before I went there. It's practical and ingenious I wish I had thought of that!


Mr. Roby Alampay told the audience about when and how it started. It was really a meeting of the minds between them and the people at MMDA. Today they can tell more than just the traffic situation. They have a database that an later on be used for trending, metrics and what not. This is valuable information that wasn't used before this project came about.




Mr. Carlo Ople demonstrated how the iphone and IPAD app would work. He showed more than just the actual system view available on the web. The latest headlines they have for INTERAKSYON one of the flagship news programs under TV5 were also seen in the application. You can even save it for offline reading. It had a pretty nice interface too.



Ms. Luchi Cruz-Valdez said that it has always been the goal of TV5 to bring information to the people. They have been doing this already with their other programs and assures their news and current affairs programs via pushing information to the applications will deliver just that!


Check out their website http://mmdatraffic.interaksyon.com for the latest traffic updates in Metro Manila. Major roads are currently in the system but they will have more later on this year once upgrades are done. To TV5, MMDA and the Filipino People congratulations! This is the best news I've ever heard this year!


PS

Thanks to Nuffnang for hooking me up on this event!



Capisce?!

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Visit their website!

http://mmdatraffic.interaksyon.com


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