MMDA chief brings traffic simulation tech to Iloilo City

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) General Manager Nicolas Torre III said Thursday the agency could help Iloilo City address its traffic challenges, including by running the city’s plans through MMDA’s traffic simulation technology.

Torre met with local media at City Hall, where he offered several suggestions to reduce traffic congestion and travel time.

He suggested the city government share its traffic plans with the MMDA so they can be tested on LocalSim, a customized traffic simulator developed by the University of the Philippines’ National Center for Transportation Studies.

LocalSim can model road dimensions, estimated vehicle counts, and allowed road and slot directions, among other transport components.

“If there are changes in traffic systems, traffic routes, [and] traffic design, on the roads for example, we widen them, we [convert them into] one-way [or] two-way [streets], no left [or] right turn, like that, if the city needs something for simulation, we have a simulator,” Torre said.

“[The Iloilo City government] can share with us their plans and run them on the simulator, for us to know that if you [implement] that, you can determine traffic time, travel time, traffic speed, [or] distance covered over time. We can do the [simulation] first before we implement it,” he added.

Torre also urged the city to exercise political will in enforcing parking and no-parking zones and removing obstructions from roads and sidewalks.

“When it comes to parking, illegal parking, obstructions, for that, it would be the political will of the [local government unit], how we influence affected persons to tell them that they can park, that they cannot encroach on the sidewalk [or the] easement, that’s already on the education part of traffic design,” he said.

“We can help [the city government] on that. The specifics that we can bring, like what I advised the [Iloilo City] command center was on the ways how we do it and what we did [that] we knew became effective,” he added.

Torre also shared the MMDA’s “136-5-5-5” protocol with the city’s command center: answering calls to the 136 hotline within five rings, arriving at the scene of concern within five minutes, and resolving the issue within five minutes.

Torre is in Iloilo as the city’s special guest for the annual Iloilo Bike Festival, reflecting his practice of biking to work in Metro Manila.

He delivered the keynote address at the Active Mobility Conference on June 3 and served as special guest for the Bike to Work Day and the official Bike Festival opening on Friday, June 5.