The future of P2P
Credit to Author: ROBERT SIY| Date: Fri, 01 Mar 2019 17:44:48 +0000
When Point-to-Point (P2P) buses first appeared on a pilot basis in December 2015, there were many skeptics. One view was that more buses on the road will create more traffic. Another view was that it would be too difficult for car users to give up convenience of a private motor vehicle. Some believed buses would be mostly empty and unused.
Skeptics were proven wrong by the enthusiastic public response. Buses were new, clean and comfortable; with no incentive to pick up passengers, drivers drove safely; Wi-Fi was standard; and low-entry buses were accessible even for persons with disabilities. More importantly, buses operated on a fixed schedule and left on time, whether full or not—a normal practice in developed cities, but a novelty for the Philippines.
One important selling point was the P2P buses had faster travel times than buses that stopped for passengers along the way. With “non-stop” service, P2P buses were almost as fast as driving your own car—plus you saved fuel, tolls, parking fees and stress of driving. You can use the time on the bus to be productive or to rest, sleep or surf the internet. Commuting was no longer wasted time.
Soon, car owners were leaving their cars at home and using P2P buses to get to their destinations. In a survey of P2P bus riders going from North EDSA to Makati, 27 percent of passengers reported they chose the bus instead of using their private cars. In the survey of Alabang to Makati P2P passengers, over 40 percent were former car users. P2P services improved mobility and alleviated road congestion by facilitating a “modal shift”— reducing the number of cars on the road by converting car users into public transport users.
A bus carrying 40 or more passengers consumes much less fuel, produces less pollution and occupies less road space than if the same number of people were transported by private cars.
With fewer cars on the road, the remaining vehicles move faster.
As P2P buses became more popular, queues started to lengthen at P2P terminals. During peak hours, every P2P bus was filled to capacity. The Department of Transportation (DOTr) responded by adding more routes and more buses. At last count, there were 33 P2P bus routes and over 300 P2P buses operating in Greater Manila.
But the P2P service is not without issues. If you visit the P2P social media sites, you will find a growing number of unhappy customers with common complaints: (a) buses that do not follow their posted schedules; (b) bus trips that are arbitrarily cancelled; (c) buses that stop and pick up passengers along the way; (d) long passenger queues and not enough buses; and (e) buses that are slow and stuck in traffic.
To attract and retain customers, the P2P service should maintain standards and deliver higher quality. If services don’t match customer expectations, P2P users will go back to using their cars and we will all be worse off.
Three service attributes help to preserve the loyalty of P2P users — availability, frequency and speed.
Availability is crucial. If you have 1,000 customers, but you have only space for 100, many customers who show up will be disappointed. If finding a seat on the bus is too much of a daily gamble, people will find a more reliable alternative and you will end up losing your customer base.
Frequency is a big factor in service quality. Today, most P2P buses have long intervals between buses of 30 minutes to one hour, even during peak hours. If there is a long interval between buses, there is less margin for error — the passenger is forced to be at the bus terminal earlier to grab a seat or else suffer a long wait for the next bus.
A frequent service gives the customer a lot more convenience and flexibility in planning her travel. A bus service that dispatches a vehicle every 10 minutes will be a lot more attractive than a service that departs every 30 minutes or every hour. With a 10-minute interval, a passenger knows that if she misses a particular bus, the next bus will come along in just a few minutes.
Travel time is another important component of service quality. While P2P buses are comfortable, they are still stuck in traffic along with everyone else, making travel time long and unpredictable. Imagine if P2P buses can arrive reliably at their destinations in one-third of their current travel time.
To achieve the above improvements, LTFRB, as the road transport industry regulator, should ensure that P2P operators comply with two key conditions of their franchise:
(a) All P2P operators are required to have enough buses in operation to offer a maximum 10-minute interval between buses during peak hours (6:00 – 8:00 am; 5:00 – 7:00 pm) going in the direction of demand. Today, none of the P2P routes comply with this requirement; and
(b) All P2P operators are required to have a facility for advance ticketing and seat booking via internet and mobile phone.
These two important franchise conditions, if met within the next six months, will deliver a significant improvement in service quality, attracting even more car owners to use a bus.
Over the medium term, recognizing that buses carry many more passengers than private cars, P2P buses (and other high capacity public transport) should be accorded priority in the use of road space. If possible, a dedicated lane should be established for buses, liberating them from traffic and friction with private motor vehicles.
On a dedicated lane, the 90-minute P2P bus ride from North EDSA to Makati will be reduced to 30 minutes. When car users sitting in slow traffic see a P2P bus zipping by, you know what they will be thinking: “I’d be there by now if I had taken the bus.”
With faster travel speeds, the P2P service can have more round trips and more passengers in a day, improving its efficiency and financial viability. With greater ridership, P2P fares can be lowered while maintaining or even increasing profitability.
A P2P service with more availability, higher frequency and shorter travel time is one of the best tools to improve mobility for all. Filipinos will have a more comfortable and convenient travel option; P2P operators will gain a larger and more stable customer base; more car users will leave their cars at home; our cities will have less congestion, less pollution, and a healthier, happier population. All achievable within this administration.
Robert Y. Siy is a development economist, city and regional planner, and public transport advocate. He can be reached at mobilitymatters.ph@yahoo.com or followed on Twitter @RobertRsiy
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