What is happening at our community quarantine checkpoints?

At the onset of the community quarantine in Luzon and in other major cities across the country, a team of De La Salle University professors embarked on a study that brings to light the need to  develop effective measures to ensure the mobility of essential goods and frontline services during a pandemic crisis.

Composed of research lead Dr. Alexis Fillone, full professor of the Civil Engineering Department, and members Dr. Joel Ilao, associate professor of the Computer Technology Department and Dr. Robert Billones, associate professor of the Manufacturing Engineering and Management Department, the team tapped the expertise of each other’s fields as they started gathering data and analyzing checkpoint queues.

The results of their initial study are contained in a paper that discusses optimal locations and allocation of personnel at checkpoints during a lockdown. The team used TITAN, a vision-based vehicle monitoring, traffic information and analysis system developed by DLSU’s Advanced Research Institute for Informatics, Computing and Networking (AdRIC), with funding by Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development. The team’s research assistant, Jonathan Cempron, an MSCS student, helped develop the TITAN system and also helped produce the raw data for the graphs.

Using a sample traffic data along Taft Avenue south bound, the team noted, for instance, that in a span of four minutes, there was an average of 58 various types of vehicles passing through the checkpoint, from jeepneys, buses, and cars to delivery vehicles and motorcycles. The team likewise analyzed a day’s worth of checkpoint operations captured on video by one of the MMDA cameras situated along EDSA.

In their analysis of queuing at checkpoints, the team has lodged ideas for computing the service rate variable (Q) against the arrival rate variable (q). These include identifying street lanes and inspection areas and possible solutions related to processing booths, segregation of lanes, placement of information signs, defining stops and terminals, and the deployment of medical and security personnel.

Fillone shares that simple acts like the rolling down of car windows, dimming of headlights for inspectors, or having signages as far as 50 meters before the checkpoints actually help in improving checkpoint operations, but are often overlooked.

Aside from classifying checkpoints in terms of the volume of potential vehicles and commuters, the team aims to determine a checkpoint’s extent of service to areas or pre-defined zones, as well as to important facilities such as key hospitals, public markets, supermarkets, and government centers in Metro Manila.

To be more holistic, they are also looking at the characteristics and behaviors of motorists and pedestrians as well as the service rate or processing time that these people go through at various checkpoints.

Furthermore, to complement the blueprint for checkpoints, the team also proposes to implement a web-like modern bus network design and develop the layout of new high traffic routes to reduce the traffic load of EDSA.

With the support of DLSU’s Center for Engineering and Sustainable Development Research, Center for Automation Research, and AdRIC, as well as the Metro Manila Development Authority and the Philippine National Police NCRPO, the team completed their initial study, which they recently submitted to the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development.

In the face of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, these DLSU professors continue their research in the hope of developing a more extensive manual that can be utilized not only for the present situation but also for a future scenario wherein the country will have been more prepared when another disease of equal magnitude strikes.

Contact: Dr. Alexis Fillone | [email protected]