The Effects of Transportation Experience on ID 117

Manufacturing Engineering and Management Freshmen

A Research Project presented to the

De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment to the Requirements in

Science, Technology, and Society 2
(SOCTEC2)

Proponents:

Big-asan, Ann Dannielle C.

Cabacugan, Lloyd Ven Dell T.
Dela Cruz, Jon Nelson
Dy, Vincent Joshua T.
Go, Mark Patrick C.
Lee, Patricia C.
Lim, Joshua A.
Ngan, Charles
Tan Ai, Richard Josiah C.
Urbano, Intel Joseph R.
Villanueva, Joseph Gabriel G.

Submitted to:
Mr. Leal, Melanio L.

December 6, 2017
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures 3
Definition of Terms 4
Acknowledgement 5

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 7
1.1 Background 7
1.2 Statement of Research Problem 9
1.3 Statement of Specific Objectives 9
1.4 Significance of the Research 9
1.5 Scopes and Delimitations of the Study 10
1.6 Philosophical Underpinning 10
1.7 Hypothesis 11

CHAPTER 2 - REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 13

CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY 16
3.1 Research Design and Approach 16
3.2 Research Participants 16
3.3 Method of Data Analysis 17
3.4 Summary 26
3.5 Conclusion and Recommendations 27

BIBLIOGRAPHY 29
APPENDICES 32

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 LIST OF FIGURES

CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY
Figure 3.1 Demographics - Age 22
Figure 3.2 Demographics - Gender 23
Figure 3.3 Students Mode of Transportation and its Associated Travel Time 24
Figure 3.4 Students Mode of Transportation and its Associated Sleep Duration 24
Figure 3.5 Travel Time vs Sleep Duration 30
Figure 3.6 Mode of Transportation vs Affected Factors 31
Figure 3.7 Travel Time vs Affected Factors 31
Figure 3.8 Mode of Transportation vs Grades 33
Figure 3.9 Travel Time vs Grades 34
Figure 3.10 Travel Time vs Interests 41
Figure 3.11 Mode of Transportation vs Health 42
Figure 3.12 Travel Time vs Health
43
Figure 3.13 Mode of Transportation vs Health 34
Figure 3.14 Travel Time vs Frequency of Stress 41

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DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. Manufacturing Engineering and Management (MEM) - is an interdisciplinary

engineering course that integrates mechanical engineering, electronics engineering, computer
studies and modern management into a single five-year degree program that includes one
year of on-the-job training in manufacturing companies.

2. ID 117 Manufacturing Engineering and Management Students - students who enrolled in

the bachelor of science manufacturing engineering and management degree program at De
La Salle Universitys academic year of 2017-2018.

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The group would like to acknowledge the help of Sebastian Dela Cruz, 117
manufacturing engineering and management student, for helping us disseminate the survey to his
fellow blockmates. The group would also like to acknowledge Johannie Mae Uy for inspiring us
to this research and for lending us her knowledge in this topic.

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

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CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

As the Philippines growth rate increases 6.9% per year, this would be highly troublesome
towards the capital cities or major landmarks that the Philippines has (Source:
http://www.worldbank.org/). This would cause the increase of public utility and private vehicles
on the road that would swell up at intersections or cause road blockages as these prime locations
would not be able to accommodate a large volume cars at a single time. Its effect towards
commuters and drivers could be one of the major causes of work inefficiency. Moreover,
according to a news in 2015 by Philippine Star, an estimated Php 3 Billion is the cost of traffic
jams per day and with the inflation rate it is higher this time. With that, traffic has been a
growing problem in the country as the population of the nation keeps growing per year.

Traffic has been one of the biggest environmental and stress inducing issue a country
could face in terms of how individuals would go about the city to reach their destination. In the
Philippines, it could be easily seen in every road despite the amount of traffic enforcers would be
placed in a heavily congested intersection. The most advised way by the government is to take
public transportation to reduce the amount of private vehicles on the road to hopefully decrease
the volume of cars on the road. Thus, they say that this is the way to reduce the traffic being
experienced by everyone.

Commuting is common to everyone who lives on a tight budget or has a difficulty

in transportation and wishes to utilize the public transportation that is provided. This would be
most commonly used by students or the blue collar working class. The commute would highly
depend on the location from the house of the commuter and their location. Another factor to
consider would be the commute route as some routes would not be a two-way process. This
would mean that the person would have to take a different route, may it be longer or shorter, with

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no choice given the circumstances of availability. The quality and management of the vehicles
used for commuting would depend on the government and the company of which the vehicles
belong to. The quality management of these vehicles are only inspected during the start of the
registration of the vehicle. The proper continuous quality check by the government or the
conductors fail to have a maintaining quality and standardization as if they would implement
such quality management towards their drivers, a lot would not pass as given the amount they
make would not be enough to fix the looks or performance of their vehicle.

Students from the school of De La Salle University Manila commonly uses public
transportation to go about the area around Taft, may it be to go home or to go to a destination.
With the conditions given to Taft Avenue, a tricycles are not allowed on the street or there are no
tricycles at all to serve the students. It has been replaced by a slower transportation method,
pedicabs. Given the choices given to MEM 117 students; jeepney, LRT, Bus, and pedicabs, it
would have a different assessment as to given a different pool of possible combinations to go
about the area. Another consideration would be the bottleneck points of Taft Avenue that are
created due to improper planning or unforeseen circumstances that would be brought to the travel
routes.

The study would be centered to manufacturing engineering and management students

who are in the batch of 117. The objective of the study would be to assess the effects of the mode
of transportation and travel time to the academics, socialization, and welfare of these selected
students. Other inclusions would be the happiness and opinion of the respondents towards their
current travel route and the quality of the vehicles they are riding. Inclusion to this would be how
often they could get a ride and/or frequency of occurrences of vehicle maintenance or
breakdowns that affected the travel route of the student.

1.2 Statement of Research Problem

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 What is the impact of the mode of transportation and stress towards the ID 117
manufacturing engineering and management students?

1.3 Statement of Specific Objectives

1. Gather information of the ID 117 manufacturing engineering and management

students on the modes of transportation they use when going to and from school.
2. To collate the students academic performances in the subjects Engineering
Algebra 1, Plane and Spherical Trigonometry for Engineering, and Chemistry 1.
3. Create a qualitative survey that would know the personal stand of the participants
of their total assessment of what they feel given the topic of traffic and stress.
4. Quantify the perception towards the socialization and welfare of the student
through the survey.
5. To determine if there is a correlation between modes of transportation that the
participant is taking to their academic performance, socialization, and welfare.

1.4 Significance of the Research

The study would benefit the commuters and policy makers in realizing the important
factors that continue to decrease work performance which that is caused by the under utilization
of the resources in improving public utility vehicles. It would provide data that would help
predict what possible problems would emerge as the population of the Philippines continues to
grow exponentially. Thus, the study aims to find the effects of the stress of experience of public
transportation has towards the ID 117 manufacturing engineering and management students in
terms of academics, socialization, and their welfare.

1.5 Scope and Delimitations of the Study

Scope

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 1. The study includes an online survey.
2. The research will focus on the effects of traffic to the socialization, welfare, and
academics of 117 MEM students.
3. The study covers the different modes of transportation such as commuting by train, bus,
and jeep, private vehicle, and walking.
4. The study will focus on the three subjects namely ENGALG1, ENGTRIG, and
CHEMONE of the 117 MEM students.

Delimitations

1. The study is only limited to 117 manufacturing engineering and management students.
2. The study does not cover the professors of the subjects.
3. The conclusions of the study will be based only on the results of the online survey.

1.6 Philosophical Underpinning

Traffic is a problem that is common to most if not all. Many problems are emerging
because of it. In order to further expound on the problems that are caused by traffic, the group
has chosen to experience of a student in traffic. Tackling on points namely academics,
socialization, and welfare of students will help in making the research focused.

1.7 Hypothesis

Students who live near DLSU and have lesser travel time will perform better in
academics, have better health and would be able to socialize more due to less stress and having
more time.

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 CHAPTER 2

Review of Related
Literature

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CHAPTER 2 - REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE

Traffic has been a problem for all Filipinos living in the cities and now a growing
concern for people living in the rural areas. Moreover, it has been affecting Filipinos specifically
the students in the National Capital Region (NCR). Students suffer from stress and sleep
deprivation due to the long commutes they are experiencing every day (Romero, 2015). Sleep
deprivation can affect their performance, long-term memory, and attention in school as they
wake up early the next day in order to get to school on time (GMA News Online, 2015). Being
present in school is vital for educators especially the students as they are the ones who will
benefit the most if they attend their classes regularly (Mugoro, 2014). Low attendance can lead
to low grades which may eventually affect the students future. Furthermore, studies also show
that students who are exposed to the pollution brought by traffic jams tend to score poorly in
exams and are also prone to depression and anxiety (Romero, 2015). It is not only pollution that
poses a risk to students but also the noise pollution it gives. Researchers found out that people
who are exposed to traffic noise are twenty-five percent more likely to show symptoms of
depression (Poon, 2015).

In a study conducted by Ruger et. al on commuting employees (Ruger, 2017), It is shown

that people with longer commute times are more likely to show lower health related quality of
life which is caused by the higher level of stress.

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 Commuting stress is composed of objective stress and subjective stress (Legrain et al,
2015). Where objective stressors are travel time, predictability, and comfort while subjective
stress include mode satisfaction and travel liking. Upon conducting a survey on driving transit
and bus they have founds out that the stress of commuting is directly associated to the mode
used. Driving is the most stressful. Transit is less stressful than driving, transit commuters are
less stressed by having a plan b and knowing the schedule of trains which make the commute
more predictable. The interaction of the objective and subjective factors are the cause of stress.
The dissatisfaction of a commuter on the commute time is a stressor.

This paper agrees with the studies shown by the government as well as international
organizations that traffic affects the students in particular in terms of their welfare, academics,
and socialization. With the current situation that Metro Manila ranks as the third worst city
traffic in Asia, this paper is relevant since De La Salle University resides in the heart of the
Metro (Mercurio, 2017). With this, it is important to determine the problems that may rise in the
near future especially to the students who travel to and from DLSU.

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CHAPTER 3

Methodology

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CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design and Approach

In order to gather the necessary information from the respondents a survey was done. The
survey were taken online through Google Forms. The average response rate for internal surveys
is 30% (Fryrear, 2015). With a high turnout rate of 78.57%, the response rate is accepted.

The members of the group also predicts that the freshmen students quiz results will
range from below average to average since they might be affected by their transition from
highschool to college. Furthermore, the group would like to gauge the students socialization
skills and opportunities, given the stress induced by transportation. Data of other sources of
stress would also be collected to measure the impact it has, aside from the transportation
experience, on the wellbeing of the student inside campus. This would give a clear picture on
how the students of batch ID 117 of manufacturing engineering and management are handling
their first terms in De La Salle University.

3.2 Research Participants

The research revolves around all 28 manufacturing engineering and management

freshmen. The respondents are currently taking general engineering subjects namely College
Algebra for Engineering (ENGALG1), Plane and Spherical Trigonometry for Engineering
(ENGTRIG), and General Chemistry (CHEMONE). See Figure 3.1 and 3.2 for the demographics
of the respondents.

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 Figure 3.1 - Demographics - Age

Figure 3.2 - Demographics - Gender

3.3 Method of Data Analysis

The researchers had a brain-storming on which topic will they focus. Some of the
researchers are travelling at least 45 minutes to go to school. With this, the group decided to
research if the mode of transportation has an effect on the academic performance, welfare, and
love life of a student. Since, most of the researchers were manufacturing engineering and

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management students they have decided to conduct their research on ID 117 manufacturing
engineering and management freshmen.

Survey question were formulated and were done through Google Forms. The target
turnout of the researchers were 100% however, only 22 out of 28 or 78.57% of the respondents
have answered. Graphs and charts were used to present the results of the survey and are also used
to analyze the data and results.

54.55% of the student commuter have travel time of around 1 to 2. It is expected for the
students who live in nearby condo to have a travel time of less than 1 hour. For the students who
use private vehicles they have travel time of more than 1 hour. Refer to Figure 3.3 for the mode
of transportation and travel time of ID 117 manufacturing engineering and management students.

Figure 3.3 - Students Mode of Transportation and its Associated Travel Time

According to Figure 3.4, people who live near the school get to sleep more compared to
those who commute, 33.33% of students who live in nearby condominiums are able to sleep with
an average duration of 6-8 hours while there is only 9.09% when it comes to student-commuters.
There is a significant difference between the duration of sleep between students who live in
condo and students. Sleep is said to affect the overall performance of individuals in several ways

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including attention span, cognitive skills and concentration which are all important to learning
(Why Is Sleep Important?, 2017). Sleep deprivation also causes stress and affect the health
negatively.

Figure 3.4 - Students Mode of Transportation and its Associated Sleep Duration

From the distribution of the answers per response, it could be seen that the travel time is
negatively correlated to the sleeping hours. People who have a longer time travelling will have
less time and thus affect their time of sleep. See figure 3.5 for the correlation of travel time and
sleep of ID 117 MEM Freshmen.

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 Figure 3.5 - Travel Time vs Sleep Duration

Figure 3.6 presents evidence that the main concern and the most affected factor of the
mode of transportation is welfare. The welfare of the person is very important as it greatly affects
the other two factors. The welfare of a person greatly affects his or her performance in
academics.

Figure 3.6 - Mode of Transportation vs Affected Factors

Figure 3.7 shows that both students with short and long travel times are more concerned
with their welfare. welfare is the main concern regardless of what mode of he or she is taking.

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 Figure 3.7 - Travel Time vs Affected Factors

Figure 3.8 compares the average scores of the ID 117 manufacturing engineering and
management students on their quizzes on different subjects. People who live near DLSU has a
higher score on all the subjects, they have an average score of 73.89, 62.11 and 62, commuters
have obtained an average of 71.55, 58.45 and 60.05, and students who use private vehicles
obtained an a average of 68, 61 and 54.50 on CHEMONE, ENGAGL1, and ENGTRIG,
respectively.

Figure 3.8 - Mode of Transportation vs Grades

Students who live near the school have scores 3.20%, 2.75% and 2.37% higher than the
average on CHEMONE, ENGALG1, ENGTRIG respectively. A one tailed t-test with
significance level .10 was done on the average scores for those who live in condo and for those
who commute. The result show that there is no significant difference to the scores.

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 .
Figure 3.9 - Travel Time vs Grades

The students with shorter travel time has slightly better scores in all three quizzes. This is
an indication of having the advantage of having more time and having less stress from
commuting and traffic.

Conducting a tone tailed t-test with significance level of 0.1 shows that there is a
significant difference on the scores of ENGALG1, however the t-test indicates that there is no
significant difference on the scores of CHEMONE and ENGTRIG.

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 People who live nearby the university have more time to spend for their personal interest
than those who commute. This is clearly due to having significant less time spent on travelling.

Figure 3.10 - Travel Time vs Interests

Figure 3.11 - Mode of Transportation vs Health

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 People who are commuting feel less healthy than student who are living in condos and
students who are using private vehicles for transport. This may be due to increased exposure to
pollution and urban noises.

Figure 3.12 - Travel Time vs Health

The students with less travel time says that they feel more healthy than those with longer
travel time. This shows the effect of stress in traffic and having more free time.

Figure 3.13 - Mode of Transportation vs Health

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 Most of the students answered that they often feel stressed. The students who live in
nearby condominiums and commuters have similar distribution in the answered frequencies.

Figure 3.14 - Travel Time vs Frequency of Stress

The mode of transportation does not not show a strong effect to the frequency of stress on
the individual. Both the condominium and commuting students have similar distribution in their
perception of stress. Stress is caused by many factors including traffic, but most of the students
are more concern on the academic workloads.

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SUMMARY

Traffic, poor transportation system, and related environmental issues have caused serious
problems affecting the daily lives of millions of citizens in Metro Manila. In line with this, the
group initiated a study which will discuss whether the different modes of transportation affects
academics, socialization, and welfare of ID 117 manufacturing engineering and management
students of De La Salle University. After conducting the survey and further research on the said
topic, it was found out that the modes of transportation contribute to the welfare of students,
while traffic, and poor transportation system, causes deterioration on the overall performance of
each individual. Additionally, 75% of the commuters, whose travel time is 1 to 2 hours, resulted
to shorter hours of sleep, thus increasing the stress level and damaging the health of students.
The different modes of transportation, however, does not cause much impact to the academics
and socialization of the students. With regards to the academics, it has little to no impact because
after conducting a t-test with the gathered data, it indicated that there were no significant
differences on the scores of CHEMONE and ENGTRIG. While for the socialization, it also has a
little to no impact at all because it's all about how people manages their time. Overall, different
modes of transportation does not necessarily affects the academics and socialization skills of an
individual but what affects the most is the overall performance of an individual. Therefore, great
attention should be given in this kind of situation because this could greatly affect the daily lives
of individuals.

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CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the analysis of data gathered, the group have discovered that the different
modes of transportation, does not cause much impact to the academics and socialization of the
students, though it affects the welfare of students. On the other hand, traffic, and poor
transportation system, causes deterioration on the overall performance of each individual.

This just goes to show that the state of transportation directly influences the priorities and
mindset of students. The alteration of priorities and mindset, can have either positive or negative
effects on the students, depending on how they choose to cope up with the state of transportation.
In conclusion, it can be said that the improvement of transportation will most likely result in the
holistic development of the students.

It is recommended to the proponents of the research to come up with a way on how to

quantify or to fully assess key factors like health. The survey questions could also be modified
by asking How are you feeling when you are travelling going to school? rather than asking
How is your health. With this, the focus of the question is narrowed down.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] Rger, H., Pfaff, S., Weishaar, H., & Wiernik, B. M. (2017). Does perceived stress
mediate the relationship between commuting and health-related quality of life?
Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 50, 100108.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2017.07.005

[2] Legrain, A., Eluru, N., & El-Geneidy, A. M. (2015). Am stressed, must travel: The
relationship between mode choice and commuting stress. Transportation Research Part
F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 34, 141151.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2015.08.001

[3] GMA News Online. (2015, September 9). Retrieved from Stress, pollution, fatigue: How
traffic jams affect your health:
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/healthandwellness/536203/stress-pollution-
fatigue-how-traffic-jams-affect-your-health/story/

[4] Mercurio, R. (2017, November 10). The Philippine Star. Retrieved from Worst city
traffic in Asia: Metro Manila ranks 3rd:
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/11/10/1757475/worst-city-traffic-asia-metro-
manila-ranks-3rd

[5] Mugoro, J. (2014). TRANSPORT PROBLEMS FOR STUDENTS AND THEIR

EFFECTS ON ATTENDANCE IN COMMUNITY SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN DAR
ES SALAAM CITY, TANZANIA. Retrieved from
http://repository.out.ac.tz/757/1/JOHANES_MUGORO.pdf

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[6] Poon, L. (2015, November 25). Citylab. Retrieved from The Sound of Heavy Traffic
Might Take a Toll on Mental Health: https://www.citylab.com/equity/2015/11/city-noise-
mental-health-traffic-study/417276/

[7] Romero, P. (2015, August 17). The Philippine Star. Retrieved from Traffic congestion
affecting publics productivity, health:
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/08/17/1489020/traffic-congestion-affecting-
publics-productivity-health

[8] French, M., Foley, B., & November 30, 2017 by Melissa French. (2017, September 05).
What's a Good Survey Response Rate? Retrieved January 30, 2017, from
https://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/survey-response-rates/

[9] Why Is Sleep Important? (2017, June 07). Retrieved December 02, 2017, from
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sdd/why

[10] Metro Manila traffic costing Philippines P3 billion a day . (2015, September 16).
Philippine Star. Retrieved December 01, 2017, from
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/09/16/1500512/metro-manila-traffic-costing-
philippines-p3-billion-day

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APPENDICES

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APPENDICES

Survey Questions:

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Responses:

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