An Evaluation of the Potential Impacts of On-Demand Passenger

Transportation Services on Critical Determinants of Urban Transport

Emissions in the Philippines

The emergence of on-demand passenger transportation services is rapidly changing urban

mobility across the globe. In developing countries with highly congested, and polluted metropolitan

areas, such as in the Philippines, such services are often marketed not only as more convenient

transport solutions, but also as lower emission urban mobility options.1 This essay investigates how

such services could potentially affect critical determinants of urban transport emissions, such as

transportation activity, modal shares, and energy and emissions intensities, within the context of the

Philippines.

Urban transportation is a key contributor to local and global atmosphreic pollution issues.

Mobile sources such as road vehicles contribute significantly to urban air pollution in Philippine cities

(Clean Air Asia, 2010). In addition, transportation is also a key source of greenhouse gases (GHGs)

that causes the acceleration of the process of global climate change. The International Energy Agency

(2016) estimates that road transportation accounts for twenty-four percent (24%) of the total Philippine

energy-related GHG emissions.

While existing empirical studies that investigate the emissions impacts of such on-demand

transport services are quite limited, and available evidence are based primarily from analyses using

data from developed countries, postulating how such services might impact urban transport emissions

in the Philippines is worthwhile as valuable insights for future policy development can be garnered from

such a process. The emissions framework proposed by Schipper et al. (2000) which defines transport

emissions as a function of overall transport activity, modal shares, and energy and emission intensities,

is useful in this exercise.

Transport-related emissions is partially determined by vehicular activity, which is a function of

vehicle ownership, and usage. On-demand transport services can be considered as “sharing economy”

platforms which enable the utilization of idle assets, and contribute towards preventing the additional

acquisition of similar assets, in this case, vehicles (Greenblatt and Shaheen, 2015 p.77). Martin and

Shaheen (2011) observe that car sharing has resulted in reductions in vehicle ownership levels for a

1
See “LTFRB decision impedes” (2016), “Why ride sharing” (2016) as examples.
sample of car sharing app users in the United States, and in Canada. It must be important to note that

the study focuses primarily on car-sharing apps, which are currently non-existent in the Philippines, and

does not include other types of on-demand transport services, such as ride sourcing (e.g. Uber and

Grab Car) and taxi- hailing apps. Moreover, there are indications that passenger vehicle sales in the

Philippines are currently being boosted by the demand for vehicles to be used for such services. For

example, a representative of an automobile manufacturing company issued a statement that the

operations of Uber and Grab in the City of Cebu have contributed towards increased vehicle sales in

the Visayas region (Lorenciana & Dagooc, 2017).2

Aside from affecting vehicle ownership levels, on-demand transport apps also directly impact

levels of vehicle usage. Martin and Shaheen (2011), as well as Clewlow et al. (2016), state that a quarter

of vehicle-kilometres that would have occurred through personal driving are avoided through car

sharing, and ride sourcing apps. While overall personal driving activity can be reduced through such

services, such avoided vehicular activity are transferred towards on-demand transport vehicles, and

should be accounted for. “Dead-heading,” which refers to the portions of the trips where there are no

passengers, has been identified as a significant issue for on-demand transport vehicles (Schaller, 2017

p.2). Henao (2017) observes that for every hundred passenger-miles performed by on-demand

transport vehicles, sixty-nine extra miles were driven due to dead-heading. In addition, Unfortunately,

there are no existing studies that consider similar factors in the Philippines. While it can be assumed

that dead-heading is occurs in any on-demand transport operations, the order of magnitude of induced

vehicular activity due to dead-heading is yet to be investigated in the Philippines.

Urban passenger transport modal shares can also be altered by on-demand transport services

which can shift transport demand away from other modes. Martin and Shaheen (2011) found that users

of car sharing platforms have exhibited increased proportions of public transport modes against total

trips. A more recent study by Rayle et al. (2016) emphasizes that while such services can complement

public transport by enabling easier access to public transport stations, these services can also take

away trips from public transport, particularly if the transit system is overcrowded (Rayle et al., 2016).

Clewlow et al. (2016) also suggests that the claim that on-demand transport services complement public

transportation needs to be contextualized, and that factors such as demographics, and the type and

availability public transport services are key in determining whether on-demand transport will substitute

2
Cebu City is the primary metropolis in the Visayas region in the Philippines.

1
or complement public transport. Nistal and Regidor (2016) show evidence that such substitution can

occur, as surveyed Filipino users of on-demand transport services, on average, would prefer such

options over mass transport options.

Energy, and emission intensities, are also significant determinants of transport emissions. Such

intensities are influenced by average passenger occupancies (passenger per trip) and technological

characteristics of the vehicles. Existing relevant studies find that on-demand transport services

demonstrate higher passenger occupancies (Henao, 2017; Rayle et al., 2016), but only when compared

with conventional taxis. Within the local context, the average energy and emissions intensities of the

on-demand transport service vehicle fleet may prove to be better than those of comparable fleets, such

as for-hire cars and taxis, as on-demand transport vehicles are required to be less than eight years old

to be able to operate as per the Department Order 2015-11. However, it must be emphasized that the

usage of cleaner low-occupancy vehicles would not necessarily result in lower aggregate emissions, as

these vehicles might displace trips that would have been done by higher occupancy vehicles which are

less pollutive if total passenger transport activity levels are considered.

While on-demand transport services may seemingly provide less-pollutive alternative urban

mobility options for Filipinos, policymakers must be aware of how these services can impact critical

factors that would dictate the overall environmental sustainability of urban transportation in the country

such as transportation activity, modal shares, and energy and emission intensities. Evidence of impacts

from other countries, when situated within the context of the Philippines, combined with the available

local data, suggest that there is a need to rethink how such services would fit into the urban

transportation systems to avoid an emissions-intensive development trajectory that is characterized by

heavily reliance on low-occupancy, on-demand transport vehicles.

2
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