Towards more sustainable transport in Metro Manila: A case study of household vehicle ownership and energy consumption

Improvement of residential areas with low accessibility to crucial destinations (e.g., hospitals, schools, markets, and recreation centers) is expected to improve traffic flow and reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. This study intends to evaluate the multi-criteria accessibility measure of residential areas to key destinations in Metro Manila, using the gravity method and applying it to understand its impact on household vehicle ownership and energy consumption. The main findings suggest that improving residential area access to key services and facilities (i.e., hospitals, schools, markets, and recreation centers) not only enhances the equitable development of society but also discourages household vehicle dependency. Additionally, the highest multi-criteria accessibility is observed for areas with the presence of high rail line density, specifically in the most populated part of Metro Manila because of many educational institutions, medical centers and hospitals, and markets and shopping malls are located around the train stations and along the rail lines. Furthermore, households living in an area with high multi-criteria accessibility are less likely to acquire and use vehicles. A 1% improvement of accessibility reduced the energy consumption by 38.470 MJ/month-vehicle, CO2 emission by 2.851 kg/month-vehicle, and vehicle kilometers traveled by 12.043 km/month-vehicle. Based on the empirical findings, policy implications recommend building more key facilities in residential areas having the lowest accessibility. The lowest accessibility areas are also geospatially visualized to support policymakers and urban planners.