At a busy intersection in Manila, Irna Lapriza, 41, sits on a flower bed, her hand constantly tapping a traffic counter to record the number of vehicles passing by. Rain or shine, thick car exhaust or flooding, she sticks to her post to record the number of vehicles clogging the streets of one of the world’s most congested cities.
Lapriza's work is simple but important to traffic engineers at the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), AFP reported. The data she collects helps engineers design and propose efficient and cost-effective traffic solutions.
“We are satisfied with this work because we know its importance. We don’t mind when people take what we do for granted,” Lapriza shared.
Lapriza’s tool is six linked counters, one for each type of vehicle—cars, motorbikes, buses. During an eight-hour shift, she logs about 7,000 vehicles and earns about 17,000 pesos ($303) a month.
Lapriza has been doing the job for 10 years, despite occasional headaches from the tropical sun. The city currently has just 34 manual car counters like her, all wearing yellow reflective vests and stationed on at least 16 major thoroughfares in the area.
“The data that traffic surveyors collect from counting vehicles on Metro Manila roads is very important. We rely on it to implement traffic engineering interventions and policies,” said Mar Anthony Santos, head of the MMDA’s traffic survey division.
Based on the data collected, the MMDA implemented motorcycle-only lanes and reduced the number of accidents on Commonwealth Avenue, a major road in northern Manila that carries 408,000 vehicles a day. Travel speeds on the road also improved, cutting 24 seconds over a seven-kilometer stretch.
Every day, it takes Ms. Lapriza 45 minutes to travel the same distance from home to work by jeepney - a popular means of transportation in the Philippines.
Santos said that, according to tests, manual vehicle counting is still more accurate than using artificial intelligence, because CCTV camera systems cannot count accurately at night or in heavy rain due to glare from headlights.
Manila, with a population of 13 million, is considered the city with the worst traffic congestion in the world. According to a 2023 report by traffic data provider TomTom, the average travel time for a 10km trip here is 25 minutes and 30 seconds.
“That's why we're so determined to do this job well, because I myself am affected by traffic jams,” Ms. Lapriza shared.
