Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The challenge of
finding space to build needed facilities in a built environment is
often signi
financial constraints.
The debate on how to increase transportation funding to serve increasing travel
demand and to sustain the existing transportation system is a major issue for the US
Congress and State legislatures and it is often fraught with con
cant in light of public resistance and
fl
icting visions and
values among the stakeholders.
Coordinating Land Use Growth and Transportation Decisions
Locating different types of activities in the same zone with high development
density will reduce the per capita use of private motor vehicles and will enable the
use of public transit/walking/biking.
Land use policies that create zones of high density and activity mix, however,
require extensive coordination among local zoning boards, and state, and federal
transportation of
cials, that is time consuming and lacks political support.
Policy decisions required to coordinate transportation and land use planning are
dif
cult to achieve in light of:
the life-style choices for low-density living;
existing institutional practices that involve separate governmental jurisdictions;
the short life cycle of elected officials; and
competing societal needs
—
education, police and
fire protection, health care, etc.
—
for the limited
financial resources available.
Pricing Strategies that Discourage Private Vehicle Use
These strategies include congestion pricing, road pricing, parking pricing, and/or
regulatory constraints on the use of private vehicles in certain areas. They are more
common in major cities located in Europe, Asia, and South America.
14.4.4 Cause: Bottlenecks (Operational, Physical, Incident-
Induced, Weather, Special Events, Work Zones)
Bottlenecks happen where/when the upstream demand volume exceeds the throughput
volume of the downstream roadway. They occur along freeways and city streets.
Congestion delays resulting from physical bottlenecks on the roadway system
are of a recurring nature: delays happen every day during the same time periods on
the same roads. However, delays resulting from incidents, weather, special events,
and road maintenance can happen at any time, on any road. These events bottle-
necks create non-recurring congestions.
