The Philippines has the worst traffic situation among six Southeast Asian countries surveyed in a recent Numbeo report.
The report that provides current and timely information on world living conditions, including cost of living, housing indicators, healthcare, traffic, crime, and pollution, recorded the Philippines as having the highest traffic index score among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that include Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Numbeo’s 2020 traffic index covering 81 countries assessed factors such as average time consumed in traffic, estimation of time consumption dissatisfaction, overall inefficiencies in the traffic system, and estimation of carbon dioxide consumption in traffic.
With a score of 198.84 points in the traffic index, the Philippines was found to be the country with the 9th worst traffic in the world, just a few percentage points worse than 10th place Colombia. Overall, Nigeria was found to have the worst traffic conditions in the world, followed by Sri Lanka, Kenya, Bangladesh, and Egypt.
Our country posted a score of 44.63 for the time index, placing it 12th worst globally. Time index is an average one-way time needed to transport in minutes. In terms of dissatisfaction due to long commute times, we were 12th worst. The inefficiency index score of the Philippines placed it at 9th worst, mostly because more people use private vehicles rather than public transportation. The country ranked 19th in the carbon dioxide index that estimates carbon dioxide consumption due to traffic.
Worsening traffic wastes billions of pesos, lowers productivity, contributes to pollution, and generally lowers a nation’s quality of life. The Numbeo survey most likely focused on Metro Manila and the National Capital Region but residents of the Metro Bacolod area are also starting to feel the negative effects of the traffic situation.
Our public officials, who can still do something to improve the traffic situation and state of public transportation, should be taking these surveys seriously and hatching comprehensive long term master plans to ensure the smooth flow of traffic and people is part of sustainable progress as we strive to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.*