quantitative research questions about philippine transportation system brainly

Why the Philippines needs transport reform

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From my house in northern Quezon City, I drive more than two hours every day to get to the office in Bonifacio Global City, which is about three cities away where I come from, and two cities away from the capital Manila. It’s a journey that should only take around half an hour under light traffic. That is a total of four hours on the road a day, if there is no road accident or bad weather. It takes me an hour longer whenever I use the public transport system. Along with hundreds of thousands of Metro Rail Transit (MRT) commuters, I have to contend with extremely long lines, slow trains, and frequent delays due to malfunctions. This has been my experience for several years. Many of us might be wondering: why have these problems persisted?

Metro Manila and other major cities are experiencing major traffic congestion because  high economic and population growth  in the last decade were not accompanied by commensurate and timely investment in infrastructure. In the last four years, the government fell short of its planned infrastructure spending by an average of PHP50 billion per year or roughly $1.1 billion. A number of public-private partnership (PPP) projects have also been delayed at various stages from planning to implementation. In particular, the much needed LRT-MRT common station has been delayed for five years now since inception as the two operators have yet to agree on where to build it.

To compensate for the lack of infrastructure, the government has implemented some stop-gap short-term measures to ease congestion, but some of these have resulted in inadvertent and occasionally severe consequences. For instance, I’m sure that all of us motorists who use C5 highway (which traverses from south to north of Metro Manila), remember how horrible traffic was there some days last year—the unintended consequence of a more restrictive truck ban. The rush to deliver goods using poorly-maintained trucks driven by sleep-deprived drivers resulted in major road accidents. Most of them happened at night or early morning when the truck ban was lifted.  I remember two instances last year when it took more than five hours to get to work due to accidents involving trucks that were not cleared up in time for the morning rush hour.

All of these contribute to an estimated productivity loss of around PHP2.4 billion ($54 million) a day or more than PHP800 billion ($18 billion) a year – an amount enough to fully plug underinvestment in infrastructure, education, and health. In truth, the country’s long history of underinvestment in infrastructure is one reason why many Filipinos are in poverty. A typical Filipino farmer has limited access to reliable roads, bridges, and irrigation to produce better crops and connect to markets in the cities. This contributes to very high food prices, which reduce real income of all Filipinos. For instance, Filipinos pay double for rice compared to Thais or Vietnamese.

All of these investments in infrastructure, alongside investments in health and education, will cost money. However, in the last seven decades, the government has not raised and sustained enough revenues to fund these. The current system cannot raise the necessary revenues to fund important investments because it is quite complex, inequitable, and inefficient.

The good news is that higher revenues do not necessarily require higher tax rates. For one, the government can raise around PHP530 billion ($12 billion) in revenues solely by improving tax administration. This means improving tax collection efficiency and plugging leaks in the tax system, without modifying or increasing tax rates. However, even if corruption and tax evasion were eliminated, tax revenues would still be inadequate to make up for the country’s investment deficit. This means that policy reforms are needed as well.

However, raising tax revenues need not be painful for society as a whole. Any change to the tax system should be done in an equitable way so that the rich pay more than the poor relative to their income, and that two individuals with the same income pay the same amount of taxes. This means taxing goods and services consumed more by richer people, such as gasoline, and raising property valuation since properties are highly correlated with wealth.

Of course, these reforms need to be accompanied by transparency and accountability measures to ensure that public funds are properly used. As taxpayers, we all want to see how our hard earned taxes are being spent, and see and feel the benefit from these public goods. The government has already started this initiative with  open data , where some government data is made publicly available in user-friendly forms. This must be sustained after this administration.

Transportation affects nearly all aspects of the daily lives of Filipinos, from direct effects like mobility and commute time to indirect effects like its impact on food prices. More investment in highways, skyways, MRT, and bus systems, financed by a simpler, more equitable, and more efficient package of tax policy reforms, would be a significant step in the right direction. Don’t you think it’s about time that we cut travel time by at least half?

This article is published in collaboration with The World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific on the rise Blog . Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

To keep up with Forum:Agenda  subscribe to our weekly newsletter .

Author: Joseph Louie Limkin is a Research Analyst at the Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management Glboal Practice of the World Bank.

Image: Commuters are silhouetted as a train arrives at a station in Manila July 1, 2008. Increasing numbers of Filipinos are leaving their cars at home and taking public transport to ease the burden of soaring fuel costs. REUTERS.

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Transportation in the Philippines

• First Online: 21 April 2017

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• Yves Boquet 2  

Part of the book series: Springer Geography ((SPRINGERGEOGR))

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Linking the islands of the archipelago was traditionally done by boat. Today, ships are still used by millions of people to cross straits between the major islands, since there are no bridges except from Leyte to Samar. Cebu lies at the center of the ferries network, while small bangkas bring people to remote islets or through river mouths and harbors. The implementation of the Strong Republic Nautical Highway aims at speeding up and smoothing transfers from island to island. The port of Manila, a small player in the dynamic West Pacific rim, may be relieved from congestion with the rise of Batangas and Subic. Aviation, centered at the saturated Manila airport, has grown quickly since deregulation pitted new entrants (Cebu Pacific) against the well-established Philippine Airlines. A good part of intercity travel is done with buses, since the country has almost no rail transport today. At the local level, mobility is done with quintessential Philippine vehicles: the jeepney (sometimes transformed in a masterpiece of pop art), the trisikel, the pedicab or the skates. Today, efforts are underway to transform the system by introducing clean electric vehicles and reforming the rules of for-hire transportation, despite strong oppositions.

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Not less than 169 ports in the province of Surigao del Norte, Mindanao.

http://www.ppa.com.ph/ppa%20web/portstat.htm .

SOURCE Le Marin.

Also in Indonesia , with only one major bridge linking East Java and Madura island.

Sinking of the “Princess of the Stars” in June 2008 off Romblon island in the midst of typhoon Fengshen/Frank: 802 dead.

“Lawmaker wants Port of Manila decongested”, Daily Tribune , July 6, 2014.

The airline was nationalized in 1941, privatized in 1965 and re-nationalized by F. Marcos in 1976.

One-airline policy was also followed by deregulation in other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand (Bowen & Leinbach 1995).

A long-time supporter of F. Marcos , L. Tan made his fortune in banking, liquor, tobacco and real estate industries. According to Forbes magazine, he is currently the second richest man in the Philippines. In 2012 the airline control passed into the hands of another tycoon, Mr. Ong, chairman of San Miguel group, famous for its breweries, before reverting back to Mr. Tan in 2014 (Balea 2014 ).

Cebu Pacific , with its planned expansion to distant markets, is now purchasing A 330 s in addition to A 320 s and 321 s, in a marked break with the usual organization of low-cost carriers.

As for the inland city of Baguio , a major tourism center, the difficult approach to its tiny airport makes it unsuitable for the Airbus 320 jets used by airlines, so this airport has a traffic limited to small turboprops with little passenger capacity.

Such as the 2015 “tanim bala” scandal, when a number of travelers, Filipinos and foreigners, were accused of carrying bullets in their bags, bullets planted during the routine safety inspections. Victims of the scam were asked to provide big sums of cash to proceed forward if they wanted to avoid detention by the airport police (Logarta 2015 ).

It was part of a “Manila syndicate”, a collection of Philippine infrastructure companies including the Manila Electric Railway and Light Company, the Manila Construction Company, and the Manila Suburban Railways Company, joined later by the Philippines Railways Construction Company. Leading American railwaymen such as Cornelius Vanderbilt sat on its board.

This railroad operated from 1907 to 1985 (passengers) and 1989 (freight). Since the end of rail service on Panay , the company, now named Panay Railways, still exists and had from time to time suggested it would restart operations, possibly with a connection spur to Iloilo Airport and an extension from Roxas City to Caticlan , where it would connect with ferries serving the resort island of Boracay . The Philippine national government, however, considers such a revival would not be economically viable.

The Philippine National Railways suffers from chronic operating deficit and has largely depended on government subsidies for its operations.

In Brasilia , Brazil , a huge bus station serves the needs of poor people going to/from Southeast or Northeast Brazil from/to the pioneer fronts areas of Amazonia and Mato Grosso. However, bus transport is quite often marked by many insufficiencies.

A Philtranco bus route crosses the 900-plus mile distance between Manila and Davao with two ferry crossings in between. The trip takes 48 h to finish.

The word “jeepney” was derived from a combination of the words, “Jeep” and “Jitney.” Jeep is a portmanteau of “General Purpose” or “Gee P”.

It has few equivalents anywhere in the world. If paratransit service is quite common, the elements that make the jeepney a truly Filipino transport vehicles are hard to replicate, even if the “colectivos” of southern South America (Argentina , Chile , Paraguay, Uruguay) had some resemblance, as well as the “chivas” or “escaleras” of rural Colombia and Ecuador and the Haitian “tap-taps”, but without the central role played by Philippine jeepneys.

A movement towards a return to small-size jeepneys has been initiated in Baguio , with the introduction of the “jeepito” resembling an early Jeep, but with the colorful decorations associated with traditional jeepneys. It is to be used to ferry tourists (Comanda 2015 ).

There are regional variations in jeepneys. In the Visayas (Bacolod , Cebu …), the classic jeepney is running alongside “multicabs’ where the vehicle’s inside is arranged like the jeepney but in Cebu the outside “flat-nosed” body resembles more a Suzuki or Toyota minivan, as in Indonesia ’s mikrolets. In Iloilo the “passad” jeepney has a much lower profile and in Davao the “uso-uso” has still another style of body frame.

“Burning grass”. Being enthusiastic at the beginning but quickly failing to pursue a certain goal if the result is not immediate.

However, the Department of Tourism plans to use about 50 repainted jeepneys as ambassadors of Philippine culture. A “Jeepney Arts Festival” was organized in a luxury hotel of Makati to launch the program, which is part of the “it’s more fun in the Philippines” campaign (Santos 2012 ).

A joint-venture between US-based Pangea Motors (Vancouver, WA, a suburb of Portland, OR) and local investors.

“Tingi” refers to a product or a service bought in very small quantity because the person does not have money to buy in greater quantity.

“Pedicab” is a mixture of the words “pedal” (how the bike is powered), and “cab” (the sidecar that ferries people). It is also called “padyak” or “sikad-sikad”, meaning ‘to pedal’ in Tagalog and Bisaya. Another names are “traysikad” in Bisaya language, referring to the number of its wheels, and “put-put”.

In 2012, there were over 650,000 for-hire tricycles and motorcycles operating in the Philippines, accounting for two thirds of all for-hire vehicles (970,000). Source: Philippines Statistics Authority ( http://www.nscb.gov.ph/secstat/d_trans.asp ). Statistics do not differentiate between regular motorcycles and tricycles.

Not to be confused with the rural kuliglig (see 14.5.3.).

The Visayan term “habal-habal” means literally “pigs copulating from behind”. This colorful expression reflects the level of intimacy possibly attained when sharing a seat with four people (Piramide 2009 ; Walsh 2014 ).

The extended benches perpendicular to the motorbike evoke the solar panels of spacecrafts.

VOCs are a large group of compounds that include benzene, a known carcinogen, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which destroy the ozone layer. The group also includes carbon dioxide, which significantly contributes to the greenhouse effect, and carbon monoxide, a toxic gas.

“Cricket”, referring to its noisy engine and its elongated shape. In some areas, they are named “kubota” from the name of the Japanese company providing engines to farmers.

Allowing local politicians to prominently display their role as builders through many billboards extolling their activity!

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How to structure quantitative research questions

There is no "one best way" to structure a quantitative research question. However, to create a well-structured quantitative research question, we recommend an approach that is based on four steps : (1) Choosing the type of quantitative research question you are trying to create (i.e., descriptive, comparative or relationship-based); (2) Identifying the different types of variables you are trying to measure, manipulate and/or control, as well as any groups you may be interested in; (3) Selecting the appropriate structure for the chosen type of quantitative research question, based on the variables and/or groups involved; and (4) Writing out the problem or issues you are trying to address in the form of a complete research question. In this article, we discuss each of these four steps , as well as providing examples for the three types of quantitative research question you may want to create: descriptive , comparative and relationship-based research questions .

• STEP ONE: Choose the type of quantitative research question (i.e., descriptive, comparative or relationship) you are trying to create
• STEP TWO: Identify the different types of variable you are trying to measure, manipulate and/or control, as well as any groups you may be interested in
• STEP THREE: Select the appropriate structure for the chosen type of quantitative research question, based on the variables and/or groups involved
• STEP FOUR: Write out the problem or issues you are trying to address in the form of a complete research question

STEP ONE Choose the type of quantitative research question (i.e., descriptive, comparative or relationship) you are trying to create

The type of quantitative research question that you use in your dissertation (i.e., descriptive , comparative and/or relationship-based ) needs to be reflected in the way that you write out the research question; that is, the word choice and phrasing that you use when constructing a research question tells the reader whether it is a descriptive, comparative or relationship-based research question. Therefore, in order to know how to structure your quantitative research question, you need to start by selecting the type of quantitative research question you are trying to create: descriptive, comparative and/or relationship-based.

STEP TWO Identify the different types of variable you are trying to measure, manipulate and/or control, as well as any groups you may be interested in

Whether you are trying to create a descriptive, comparative or relationship-based research question, you will need to identify the different types of variable that you are trying to measure , manipulate and/or control . If you are unfamiliar with the different types of variable that may be part of your study, the article, Types of variable , should get you up to speed. It explains the two main types of variables: categorical variables (i.e., nominal , dichotomous and ordinal variables) and continuous variables (i.e., interval and ratio variables). It also explains the difference between independent and dependent variables , which you need to understand to create quantitative research questions.

To provide a brief explanation; a variable is not only something that you measure , but also something that you can manipulate and control for. In most undergraduate and master's level dissertations, you are only likely to measure and manipulate variables. You are unlikely to carry out research that requires you to control for variables, although some supervisors will expect this additional level of complexity. If you plan to only create descriptive research questions , you may simply have a number of dependent variables that you need to measure. However, where you plan to create comparative and/or relationship-based research questions , you will deal with both dependent and independent variables . An independent variable (sometimes called an experimental or predictor variable ) is a variable that is being manipulated in an experiment in order to observe the effect this has on a dependent variable (sometimes called an outcome variable ). For example, if we were interested in investigating the relationship between gender and attitudes towards music piracy amongst adolescents , the independent variable would be gender and the dependent variable attitudes towards music piracy . This example also highlights the need to identify the group(s) you are interested in. In this example, the group of interest are adolescents .

Once you identifying the different types of variable you are trying to measure, manipulate and/or control, as well as any groups you may be interested in, it is possible to start thinking about the way that the three types of quantitative research question can be structured . This is discussed next.

STEP THREE Select the appropriate structure for the chosen type of quantitative research question, based on the variables and/or groups involved

The structure of the three types of quantitative research question differs, reflecting the goals of the question, the types of variables, and the number of variables and groups involved. By structure , we mean the components of a research question (i.e., the types of variables, groups of interest), the number of these different components (i.e., how many variables and groups are being investigated), and the order that these should be presented (e.g., independent variables before dependent variables). The appropriate structure for each of these quantitative research questions is set out below:

Structure of descriptive research questions

• Structure of comparative research questions
• Structure of relationship-based research questions

There are six steps required to construct a descriptive research question: (1) choose your starting phrase; (2) identify and name the dependent variable; (3) identify the group(s) you are interested in; (4) decide whether dependent variable or group(s) should be included first, last or in two parts; (5) include any words that provide greater context to your question; and (6) write out the descriptive research question. Each of these steps is discussed in turn:

Choose your starting phrase

Identify and name the dependent variable

Identify the group(s) you are interested in

Decide whether the dependent variable or group(s) should be included first, last or in two parts

Include any words that provide greater context to your question

Write out the descriptive research question

FIRST Choose your starting phrase

You can start descriptive research questions with any of the following phrases:

How many? How often? How frequently? How much? What percentage? What proportion? To what extent? What is? What are?

Some of these starting phrases are highlighted in blue text in the examples below:

How many calories do American men and women consume per day?

How often do British university students use Facebook each week?

What are the most important factors that influence the career choices of Australian university students?

What proportion of British male and female university students use the top 5 social networks?

What percentage of American men and women exceed their daily calorific allowance?

SECOND Identify and name the dependent variable

All descriptive research questions have a dependent variable. You need to identify what this is. However, how the dependent variable is written out in a research question and what you call it are often two different things. In the examples below, we have illustrated the name of the dependent variable and highlighted how it would be written out in the blue text .

The first two examples highlight that while the name of the dependent variable is the same, namely daily calorific intake , the way that this dependent variable is written out differs in each case.

THIRD Identify the group(s) you are interested in

All descriptive research questions have at least one group , but can have multiple groups . You need to identify this group(s). In the examples below, we have identified the group(s) in the green text .

What are the most important factors that influence the career choices of Australian university students ?

The examples illustrate the difference between the use of a single group (e.g., British university students ) and multiple groups (e.g., American men and women ).

FOURTH Decide whether the dependent variable or group(s) should be included first, last or in two parts

Sometimes it makes more sense for the dependent variable to appear before the group(s) you are interested in, but sometimes it is the opposite way around. The following examples illustrate this, with the group(s) in green text and the dependent variable in blue text :

Group 1st; dependent variable 2nd:

How often do British university students use Facebook each week ?

Dependent variable 1st; group 2nd:

Sometimes, the dependent variable needs to be broken into two parts around the group(s) you are interested in so that the research question flows. Again, the group(s) are in green text and the dependent variable is in blue text :

How many calories do American men and women consume per day ?

Of course, you could choose to restructure the question above so that you do not have to split the dependent variable into two parts. For example:

How many calories are consumed per day by American men and women ?

When deciding whether the dependent variable or group(s) should be included first or last, and whether the dependent variable should be broken into two parts, the main thing you need to think about is flow : Does the question flow? Is it easy to read?

FIFTH Include any words that provide greater context to your question

Sometimes the name of the dependent variable provides all the explanation we need to know what we are trying to measure. Take the following examples:

In the first example, the dependent variable is daily calorific intake (i.e., calories consumed per day). Clearly, this descriptive research question is asking us to measure the number of calories American men and women consume per day. In the second example, the dependent variable is Facebook usage per week. Again, the name of this dependent variable makes it easy for us to understand that we are trying to measure the often (i.e., how frequently; e.g., 16 times per week) British university students use Facebook.

However, sometimes a descriptive research question is not simply interested in measuring the dependent variable in its entirety, but a particular component of the dependent variable. Take the following examples in red text :

In the first example, the research question is not simply interested in the daily calorific intake of American men and women, but what percentage of these American men and women exceeded their daily calorific allowance. So the dependent variable is still daily calorific intake, but the research question aims to understand a particular component of that dependent variable (i.e., the percentage of American men and women exceeding the recommend daily calorific allowance). In the second example, the research question is not only interested in what the factors influencing career choices are, but which of these factors are the most important.

Therefore, when you think about constructing your descriptive research question, make sure you have included any words that provide greater context to your question.

SIXTH Write out the descriptive research question

Once you have these details ? (1) the starting phrase, (2) the name of the dependent variable, (3) the name of the group(s) you are interested in, and (4) any potential joining words ? you can write out the descriptive research question in full. The example descriptive research questions discussed above are written out in full below:

In the section that follows, the structure of comparative research questions is discussed.

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How to Write Quantitative Research Questions: Types With Examples

For research to be effective, it becomes crucial to properly formulate the quantitative research questions in a correct way. Otherwise, you will not get the answers you were looking for.

Has it ever happened that you conducted a quantitative research study and found out the results you were expecting are quite different from the actual results?

This could happen due to many factors like the unpredictable nature of respondents, errors in calculation, research bias, etc. However, your quantitative research usually does not provide reliable results when questions are not written correctly.

We get it! Structuring the quantitative research questions can be a difficult task.

Hence, in this blog, we will share a few bits of advice on how to write good quantitative research questions. We will also look at different types of quantitative research questions along with their examples.

Let’s start:

How to Write Quantitative Research Questions?

When you want to obtain actionable insight into the trends and patterns of the research topic to make sense of it, quantitative research questions are your best bet.

Being objective in nature, these questions provide you with detailed information about the research topic and help in collecting quantifiable data that can be easily analyzed. This data can be generalized to the entire population and help make data-driven and sound decisions.

Respondents find it easier to answer quantitative survey questions than qualitative questions. At the same time, researchers can also analyze them quickly using various statistical models.

However, when it comes to writing the quantitative research questions, one can get a little overwhelmed as the entire study depends on the types of questions used.

There is no “one good way” to prepare these questions. However, to design well-structured quantitative research questions, you can follow the 4-steps approach given below:

1. Select the Type of Quantitative Question

The first step is to determine which type of quantitative question you want to add to your study. There are three types of quantitative questions:

• Descriptive
• Comparative 
• Relationship-based

This will help you choose the correct words and phrases while constructing the question. At the same time, it will also assist readers in understanding the question correctly.

2. Identify the Type of Variable

The second step involves identifying the type of variable you are trying to measure, manipulate, or control. Basically, there are two types of variables:

• Independent variable (a variable that is being manipulated)
• Dependent variable (outcome variable)

If you plan to use descriptive research questions, you have to deal with a number of dependent variables. However, where you plan to create comparative or relationship research questions, you will deal with both dependent and independent variables.

3. Select the Suitable Structure

The next step is determining the structure of the research question. It involves:

• Identifying the components of the question. It involves the type of dependent or independent variable and a group of interest (the group from which the researcher tries to conclude the population).
• The number of different components used. Like, as to how many variables and groups are being examined.
• Order in which these are presented. For example, the independent variable before the dependent variable or vice versa.

4. Draft the Complete Research Question

The last step involves identifying the problem or issue that you are trying to address in the form of complete quantitative survey questions . Also, make sure to build an exhaustive list of response options to make sure your respondents select the correct response. If you miss adding important answer options, then the ones chosen by respondents may not be entirely true.

Types of Quantitative Research Questions With Examples

Quantitative research questions are generally used to answer the “who” and “what” of the research topic. For quantitative research to be effective, it is crucial that the respondents are able to answer your questions concisely and precisely. With that in mind, let’s look in greater detail at the three types of formats you can use when preparing quantitative market research questions.

1. Descriptive

Descriptive research questions are used to collect participants’ opinions about the variable that you want to quantify. It is the most effortless way to measure the particular variable (single or multiple variables) you are interested in on a large scale. Usually, descriptive research questions begin with “ how much,” “how often,” “what percentage,” “what proportion,” etc.

Examples of descriptive research questions include:

2. Comparative

Comparative research questions help you identify the difference between two or more groups based on one or more variables. In general, a comparative research question is used to quantify one variable; however, you can use two or more variables depending on your market research objectives.

Comparative research questions examples include:

3. Relationship-based

Relationship research questions are used to identify trends, causal relationships, or associations between two or more variables. It is not vital to distinguish between causal relationships, trends, or associations while using these types of questions. These questions begin with “What is the relationship” between independent and dependent variables, amongst or between two or more groups.

Relationship-based quantitative questions examples include:

Ready to Write Your Quantitative Research Questions?

So, there you have it. It was all about quantitative research question types and their examples. By now, you must have figured out a way to write quantitative research questions for your survey to collect actionable customer feedback.

Now, the only thing you need is a good survey maker tool , like ProProfs Survey Maker , that will glide your process of designing and conducting your surveys . You also get access to various survey question types, both qualitative and quantitative, that you can add to any kind of survey along with professionally-designed survey templates .

About the author

Emma David is a seasoned market research professional with 8+ years of experience. Having kick-started her journey in research, she has developed rich expertise in employee engagement, survey creation and administration, and data management. Emma believes in the power of data to shape business performance positively. She continues to help brands and businesses make strategic decisions and improve their market standing through her understanding of research methodologies.

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