Advocacy of Ateneo Pedestrian and Traffic Computing Lab to the City Government of Quezon City and MMDA
In 2012 Quezon City government is setting Quezon City Tourism Development where Katipunan area in Quezon City is set to be transformed into Academic District. We supported the Quezon City government by proposing Katipunan Avenue safe for sustainable walking and biking, then move towards making the Katipunan Academic District a “complete streets” or a truly revitalized community. The road is being managed by multiple government agencies including Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Department of Public Work and Highway, Quezon City government under Barangay Loyola Heights. The overlapping of unclear involvement between agencies makes policy engagement more difficult because of the multiple actors involved.
Katipunan road, which only about 2km in length, is vital to the Philippines economic because it is a national road which is part of Circumferential Road 5 (C5) utilized by more than 100,000 vehicles per day. Three major universities of the Philippines (UP Diliman, Ateneo de Manila and Miriam College) and several major schools are densely located or closely connected in this road. The total population of the universities and schools in this area summed up to more than 70,000 people with estimated about 33% are densely living within Katipunan district.
Walkways are an essential aspect of moving people from their residential place to their activities center as well as for interconnectivity to the public transport stations. Unfortunately, the current walkway along Katipunan are not pedestrian friendly and Katipunan has an incomplete stretch of walkway. As the results, we have connectivity problem to the public transportation (LRT) and Jeepney stops, severe unwanted interaction between car parks and pedestrian, security problem to pedestrians, limited parking lots to the business side that cause illegal parking and further burden the traffic along Katipunan.
We proposed to
- Improve the walkway by reversing the walkway to be in the inner side of the public right of way
- Widening the walkway
- Improve the connectivity of the walkway up to LRT station
- Improve the pedestrian overpass friendly to bikers by setting a small ramp is placed to make it easier for one to push the bike up.
When our proposal is implemented, we will see significant impact to improve the traffic situation along Katipunan, significantly increase the number of car parks along the street because parking building can be built only on condition that people can walk to their destination, create conducive business environment because pedestrians can stops to multiple shops and walk to see the display. Reduction of illegal car park and connection to LRT would increase the usage of public transportation which will further ease the traffic and improve the connection for tourist to come to the sustainable academic district of Quezon City.
Download our slide presentation to the Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte and MMDA Usec Corazon Jimenez