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I.

Background of Study

Geography

Baguio city occupies about 57 sq. km

of hilly land about 1524mm high in the
Southwestern portion of the Cordillera
Central mountain range in Northern Luzon in
the Philippines. It is completely surrounded
by the province of Benguet, which Baguio used
to be a town of before being made into an
independent city. As of May 2010, the population
of this town has reached 318,676 and have growth
rate of 2.81 from 1990 to 2010.
www.google.com/baguio_city/

Being the Philippines summer capital, it is

where Filipino families, balikbayans
(Filipinos returning from living and working
overseas), American tourists nostalgic for the
countrys Little America, and other foreign
visitors who wants to sample an altogether
different Philippine setting. Throughout the
year, Baguio is also popular as Convention
City, boasting of several convention centers
and conference halls that can accommodate up to 4,000 guests at a time.

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www.google.com/burnham/

In the past decade, student population has

surged as Baguio schools have been mushrooming
all over the city, and as same-sized campuses
have been permitted an unhampered increase
in enrollment. This massive number of transient
residents has affected tourism economy somehow
because it is the main cause of the congestion of
the city center, as the big schools are located there,
and a rising unemployment rate. This has also led to an
overpopulation of Baguio (as it was designed
originally for just 25,000 residents).
PSA national statistics office

www.google.com/lourdes_baguio.city/

There are many tourist sites

in the Baguio City like the Camp
Johnhay, The Mansion, and Baguio
Cathedral etc. One of which is the
Lourdes Grotto which is a religious
shrine housing the image of Our
Lady of Lourdes. It has about 252 steps lead to this shrine where pilgrims brave the steep climb
to offer sacrifices, devotions and prayers; one is also blessed with a beautiful panoramic view of
the city. Another place is the Diplomat Hotel which is popularly known as the Hunted Hotel
because of the tragedy occurred that killed many persons.

The study was conducted to find out if

Lourdes intersection is subjected to non-uniform
flow of traffic and to find out if the existing
intersection is suitable to the area. Also, this
study will find out the effects of the volume of
tourists going to Lourdes Grotto and Diplomat
Hotel.
www.googlemap.com/baguio_city/dominican.road/

Studying the traffic flow of Lourdes

intersection helps lessen the problem of
congestion and to let vehicle operators travel
smoothly. Traffic congestions usually arise at
peak hours but by this study, we try to eliminate
and make the traffic flow continuous.

Google earth

II.

Statement of the Problem:

Traffic congestion nowadays is becoming one of our community problems because travelling
time increases. Passengers from Lourdes, Dominican, San Luis, Asin, San Roque, Quezon
hill and San Carlos were complaining everyday because they were being late in their
appointments because of traffic congestion. The main cause of this traffic congestion is the
yearly increase in the volume of vehicles such as jeepneys. It is being observed that traffic

congestion happens daily in the city during peak hours/days like holiday seasons and most
especially during city festivals.

Objectives:
1. To minimize traffic congestion at Lourdes-Naguilian intersection.
2. To assess the most probable effect of underpass-overpass intersection.
3. To help vehicle operators arrive at their destination at a lesser span of time.

Questions:
1. Does the underpass-overpass intersection help minimize traffic congestion or make the
congestion worse?
2. What will be the effects in traffic flow of the proposed underpass-overpass ntersection?
3. What are the factors affecting travel time?

III.

Hypothesis:
Controls on access (limiting the number of vehicles entering a junction), speed (setting
and enforcing variable speed limits to smooth flows) and putting up flyovers (channelized or
not channelized intersections) are being piloted.
Space can be reallocated away from general traffic to more selective uses such as bus
lanes or cycle tracks; it could also be allocated to pedestrians.

Review of Related Literature

Traffic congestion these days is becoming one of our communities problems, economic, social
and environmental. Too many cars, like SUVs, buses, etc., traversing our highways/roads are
the main contributor to this problem. Drivers and commuters also contribute to traffic
congestion because sometimes, they do not follow simple traffic rules.
Cars has brought freedom, flexibility and mobility to many people but there is increasing
concern about the economic cost of road congestion and the environmental effects of
pollution from congested traffic.
Despite the problems of coping with congestion there does seem to be increasing
consensus on what is involved, even if policy makers seem far from agreeing on what
should be done. Mass car ownership is, and will remain, a vital form of transport; and car
ownership will extend yet further through society as the economy grows. The use of cars in
environmentally sensitive places needs to be reduced by stronger demand management.
Public transport can play a stronger role, particularly into and out of urban centres or
on long distance trips between urban centres. Economic development will continue and
transport solutions will vary widely from place to place: solutions for the centre of a big
city are unlikely to work for the suburbs, around a market town, or the countryside.
There has been increasing concern in recent years about the economic cost of road congestion
as well as the environmental effects of pollution from car traffic. Attempts have been

made to estimate the "costs of congestion" by taking the legal speed limit on roads or the
standards to which they were designed as baselines from which to calculate and cost delays.
A study by the British Road Federation estimated that the cost of congestion in Britain's
main conurbations in 1985/86 amounted to 3.2 billion.
Other options set out in the review include making better use of the existing road
infrastructure. There is an extensive range of tools either in existence or being developed
which can aid the effective management of the road space. Many of these make use of new
technology. Controls on access (limiting the number of vehicles entering a junction), speed
(setting and enforcing variable speed limits to smooth flows) and putting up flyovers
(channelized or unchannelized intersections) are being piloted. Travel information can also
be more closely linked to park and ride sites and other transport interchanges, such as
mainline stations. Space can be reallocated away from general traffic to more selective
uses such as bus lanes or cycle tracks. The use of dedicated lanes for buses can help make
them more reliable and help increased use of alternative transport. Road space could also be
allocated to lorries or to pedestrians. (Traffic Congestion [including the Road Traffic
Reduction (United Kingdom Targets) Bill 1997/98 Bill 11])
Traffic congestion that has arisen as a result of extensive private-vehicle use and low-vehicle
occupancy presents a perplexing problem. The high cost of new highway construction
(including monetary, environmental and social costs) often makes building new highways or
adding additional highway capacity an unattractive option. Trying to manage the demand for
highways also has its problems. For example, programs aimed at reducing congestion by
encouraging travellers to take alternate modes of transportation (bus-fare incentives, increases in
private-vehicle parking fees, tolls and traffic congestion pricing, rail- and bus-transit incentives)
or increasing vehicle occupancy (high-occupancy vehicle lanes and employer-based ridesharing
programs) can be considered viable options. However, such programs have the adverse effect of
direction people toward travel modes that inherently provide lower levels of mobility because
no other mode offers the departure-time and destination-choice flexibility provided by private,
single-occupant vehicles. Managing traffic congestion is an extremely complex problem with
significant economic, social, environmental, and political implications. (Principles of highway
Engg and traffic analysis, 5th Edition, fred l. Mannering, Scott S. Washburn)
Traffic simulation models (TSMs) simulate traffic on road networks and give traffic researchers
and practitioners a tool to test what the effect is of all sorts of traffic measures and scenarios on
traffic conditions. What TSMs do not provide is a means to reason the other way round, that is,
from effects (what really happened) to causes. On freeways or in case of large scale events,
these causes are often straightforward, but in everyday traffic in large urban networks this is
certainly not the case. For example, is a traffic jam on a major urban arterial the consequence of
badly tuned traffic lights along this arterial, is it due to spillback from connected arterials or
simply a case of too much people taking the same route where alternatives are available.( Dr. Ir.
J.W.C. van Lint, Reversing the traffic jam: better predictions by looking back,7-6-2004)

Buses provide the main means of transport to many who do not drive a car and are the main
alternative to cars in urban areas. Bus services are particularly susceptible to
congestion. Passengers are deterred because of slower and less reliable services; delays

increase operating costs and so increase fares. Allocation of road capacity to buses
improves their speed and reliability for the public and is also commercially advantageous to
the operator. Increasing use is being made of "quality partnerships." Under such
partnerships, operators provide vehicles to a specified quality, and the local authority
provides assistance through traffic management schemes or other facilities. Buses can also be
given priority at road junctions, either by permitting buses to make a turn prohibited to other
traffic or by adjusting signals when a bus is detected in the traffic. Allowing buses to make a
turn prohibited to other traffic is a measure that is usually cheap to install and which can
give buses a considerable advantage. Research into the safety aspects indicates that very
few accidents involve buses making an exempted turn.( . (Traffic Congestion [including the
Road Traffic Reduction (United Kingdom Targets) Bill 1997/98 Bill 11])
IV.

Conceptual Framework

This research focuses on channelization (underpass-overpass) of Lourdes intersection. It will

seek to determine the workability and serviceability of the intersection. School and work trips,
and tourists visiting the famous Lourdes Grotto and Diplomat Hotel are among the main
contributors to the traffic congestion.
In line with these, we, the researchers visited the site and observed that during peak hours the
intersection is subjected to non-uniform traffic flow which increase the travel time of motor
vehicle operators which makes the intersection ineffective. The traffic congestion affects the
nearby intersection like the Quezon Hill and Asin road .The researchers then conducts a traffic
volume count to determine the volume of vehicles traversing the said intersection during peak
hours which is 6:15 to 8:30 AM then 5:00 to 7:30 PM. It was conducted one Monday and
Friday.
The data gathered were tabulated and several graphs were made to show which direction takes
the most number of vehicles. Using the gathered data, we will use the principle of transportation
engineering which is the Reserved Capacity Method. This method will be used to find the level
of service. After determining the level of service, we can now determine if the existing
intersection can handle the present traffic condition. But if not, underpass-overpass intersection
should be proposed.

V.

Significance

The study was conducted to find out if Lourdes-Naguilian intersection is subjected to nonuniform flow of traffic and to find out if the existing intersection is suitable to the area. This
study will also find out the effects of the volume of tourists going to Lourdes Grotto and
Diplomat hotel.
Studying the traffic flow of Lourdes-Naguilian intersection helps lessen the problem of
congestion and to let vehicle operators travel smoothly. Traffic congestions usually arise at peak
hours but by this study, we want to eliminate that and make the traffic flow continues.

VI.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Assessing traffic congestion and gathering traffic volume have a lot of work to do so the
researchers made it easier by using Reserve Capacity Method and with the help of DPWH. The
researchers gathered the data by simply using the tally method. Sample motor vehicles were
taken in general because our main purpose is to evaluate the condition of intersection. This
purpose is to know if the existing intersection can handle the traffic congestion occurring daily.

To avoid high cost of sampling, the researchers manually counted the motor vehicle that
contributed to traffic congestion.

By the aid of Microsoft excel, peak hour volume can be determined by simply inputting the data
gathered and using histogram. Results are as follows:
DATA AND RESULTS

TOP SECTION

BOTTOM SECTION

TOP SECTION

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BOTTOM SECTION

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TOP SECTION

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BOTTOM SECTION

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TOP SECTION

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BOTTOM SECTION

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VII.

REFERENCES:

www.google.com/baguio_city/

www.google.com/burnham/

PSA national statistics office

www.google.com/lourdes_baguio.city/
www.googlemap.com/baguio_city/dominican.road/
Google earth
Traffic Congestion [including the Road Traffic Reduction (United Kingdom Targets) Bill
1997/98 Bill 11])
(Principles of highway Engg and traffic analysis, 5th Edition, fred l. Mannering, Scott S.
Washburn)
Dr. Ir. J.W.C. van Lint, Reversing the traffic jam: better predictions by looking back,7-62004)

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VIII. WORK AND PLAN ACTIVITY

ACTIVITIES

PERSONS
INVOLVED

EXPECTED DATE

EXPECTED
RESULTS

FURTHER SURVEY
OF THE AREA
(LOURDES
INTERSECTION)
FURTHER
GATHERING OF
DATA

ALL RESEARCHERS

JANUARY 19-21,
2015

POSSIBLE
LOCATION OF
FLYOVER

ALL RESEARCHERS

JANUARY 23 & 26,

2015

PLOTTING OF DATA
AND DETERMINING
ITS LEVEL OF
SERVICE
FORMULATING
HYPOTHESIS (IN
ADDITION TO
CURRENT
HYPOTHESIS)
LAYOUTS (TESTING
HYPOTHESIS)

ALL RESEARCHERS

JANUARY 27-28,
2015

ALL RESEARCHERS

JANUARY 29-31,
2015

TO CHECK IF THE
FIRST RESULT IS
STILL CURRENTLY
EXPERIENCED (FOR
REVISIONS)
THE PART WHERE
TRAFFIC
CONGESTION IS
CRITICAL
TO FURTHER
EVALUATE THE
SOLUTIONS ON THE
PROBLEMS

ALL RESEARCHES

FEBRUARY 02-07,
2015

FINALIZATION OF
RESEARCH AND
PROPOSAL
INCLUDES ALL PART
OF RESEARCH

ALL RESEARCHERS

FEBRUARY 09-end
of 1st semester

DRAWINGS AND
DETAILS OF
SOLUTIONS
FINALIZED
RESEARCH PAPERS
INCLUDING
DRAWINGS AND
DETAILS OF THE
RESEARCH

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