Traffic Solution Innovators, one of the innovation teams of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) came up with an innovation project called LabHub. It came about through the team’s aspiration of gathering the stakeholders’ support in implementing effective traffic management policies. Some issues that they encountered include the public’s attitude on the road, the jurisdiction and enforcement capability of MMDA officers, traffic congestion and road conditions, the lack of research-based solutions, and the weak enforcement. To resolve the issues, solution ideas such as a strengthened information drive, established proactive monitoring of stakeholders’ feedback, and an improvement in stakeholders’ involvement in traffic policy development were generated. The team came up with LabHub that features gearing up the MMDA website, developing a mobile app, and, making use of advertisements for an information campaign. The project aims to improve traffic conditions, get stakeholder support in traffic policy, enhance awareness, and discipline the general public.

Insights

The Innovation Team brought relevant information that could help in identifying issues or opportunities for improvement in developing traffic policies. They shared their gathered information and insights during the data exploration phase. Some of their insights are as follows:

  1. Drivers do not have road courtesy and discipline as many drivers have a me-first mentality.
  2. Implementation of laws are not strict enough to ensure the compliance of the citizens to rules and regulations.
  3. The public has a strong resistance against change.
  4. The current law enforcement system focuses more on sanctions and violations than a rewards-based system.
  5. The current policy development efforts lean more towards being reactive than being proactive in finding solutions.
  6. The apprehension of accident reports are manually recorded and leads to human errors.
  7. The signage on the streets can be too small, unreadable, obstructed or overlapping
  8. Road construction leads to heavier traffic congestion.
  9. Traffic laws and regulations are not standardized among different Local Government Units.
  10. The MMDA has a limited jurisdiction because of LGU local autonomy.
  11. Proposals and solutions should be based on well-grounded research by those with technical expertise.
  12. The increasing number of vehicles on narrow roads leads to increasing traffic congestion as well.

All of the information was clustered into the following themes:

  1. Public Attitude on the Road
  2. Limited jurisdiction
  3. No research-based solution
  4. Heavy Traffic
  5. Road Conditions
  6. Weak enforcement

Innovation Project

The TSI came up with these projects to resolve the issues in the poor “buy-in” of stakeholders’ with traffic policies:

  1. Geared-up MMDA Website
    1. Audiovisual presentations
    2. Traffic solution idea contest – Completed contest guidelines, secure approval of the guidelines including prizes
    3. Traffic information campaign – Inform and educate road users on MMDA traffic rules and regulations, road safety and major road traffic programs/projects/ policies (1 Output per Quarter)
    4. Poll/survey – Get immediate stakeholders’ feedback on existing/current and proposed traffic policies and process real-time poll/survey results (1 Poll/Survey per Quarter)
    5. Alam niyo ba? – Traffic trivia content (10 quarterly)
  2. Development of Mobile App
    1. Traffic quiz and trivia questions, incentives/recognition for high scores (e.g. gift certificates, free load, free provincial bus ride)
    2. Traffic interactive games promoting proper road use observing traffic rules and regulations.
  1. Ads for the Information and Education Campaign
    1. Ads on TV, radio, social media platforms, public transportation, relatable to the general public.
    2. Tackles traffic issues with the use of funny content, hugot, memes.
    3. Tapping celebrities (John Lloyd, Coco Martin). Use of interactive ads. (Hanapin ang mali sa litrato)

Project Success Measures

Through LabHub, the agency will be able to gather support from stakeholders in implementing effective traffic management policies, improve enforcement and better reception and awareness of the public. Thus, the success measure of the project are as follows:

  1. Improved traffic condition
  2. Stakeholder support in traffic policy
  3. Enhanced awareness
  4. Disciplined general public