Human touch: A traffic surveyor manually counting passing vehicles from a footbridge in Pasig City, Metro Manila. — AFP
PERCHED on a flowerbox at a busy intersection in the Philippine capital, Irna Lapriza’s eyes jump from one car to the next, her fingers flying across manual tally counters as she logs each passing vehicle.
Rain or shine, through floods and car exhaust pollution, the 41-year-old holds the fort as carmageddon plays out each day in the South-East Asian metropolis infamous for its gridlock.
Her tallies end up with the traffic engineers of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), who design and propose inexpensive traffic solutions.
“We’re happy with this job because we know how important it is,” said Lapriza. Her pink manicured hands rest on six linked cylindrical counters – each for a different type of vehicle.
She logs about 7,000 cars, bikes and more during an eight-hour shift that earns her around 17,000 pesos (RM1,270) a month.
Lapriza has been at it for 10 years, even though she gets the occasional headache from prolonged exposure to the sun.
The city government employs just 34 manual car counters, who wear reflective yellow safety vests and are deployed to at least 16 major roads.
“The data our traffic surveyors get from counting cars on Metro Manila roads is very important,” said Mar Anthony Santos, head of the MMDA’s traffic survey section.
“It serves as the foundation for our traffic engineering interventions and policies.”
Based on the counters’ data, Santos said the MMDA installed a dedicated motorcycle lane and succeeded in reducing accidents at Commonwealth Avenue, a thoroughfare used by 408,000 motorists per day.
Vehicle speeds on the avenue, previously notorious for crashes, also improved by 24 seconds over the seven kilometre stretch.
It takes Lapriza 45 minutes to commute the same distance to work every day by jeep in another part of Manila.
Santos said tests showed a manual count was more accurate than using artificial intelligence, as CCTVs cannot count accurately at night or during heavy rain due to glare from headlights.
Manila, a sprawling metropolis of 13 million people, has the world’s worst traffic gridlock, according to one survey. — AFP
