Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
People who live a large metropolitan area are concerned about traf
c congestion
because it affects most of their daily activities
arriving on time to work or at a
business meeting, to meet a friend, catching a plane, etc.
Below are examples of different traf
—
c congestion experiences and the type of
responses that each engenders:
If you have moved your young family in the suburbs where you could afford the
house and your commute has become longer and more stressful, you will favor
the construction of more road capacity, or an affordable, faster transit service.
If you can afford to buy or rent in the central city, roadway traf
c congestion
may not bother you too much, but crowded buses or trains, or station platforms
will. If you live in the city, therefore, you would favor improving transit service
and bicycle routes for your mobility needs.
If you are an urban economist, you are concerned with marginal cost pricing and
are likely to favor reducing traf
c demand through congestion pricing. You will
be supported by environmentalists and those living near congested roadways
because less motor vehicle traf
c improves air quality. But congestion pricing is
likely to be opposed by suburban commuters because it will increase their
commuting cost
—
upsetting the cost balance of their housing and commuting
that they were counting on when they decided on the housing location choice. In
addition, low-income commuters will tend to oppose congestion pricing pre-
ferring
“
free
”
roads that require waiting on traffic queues to toll roads that reduce
congested travel.
If you are an environmental advocate you will support higher land density
developments such as
because you want to reduce the growth of
vehicle miles of travel (VMT). But if you are a developer, you are concerned
about the demand for high density housing in suburban areas.
“
smart growth
”
Transportation planners and environmental groups advocate more transit
capacity to encourage travelers to use transit service and they are typically
joined by economists in promoting the idea of using revenues from congestion
pricing to
finance transit improvements.
If you are a traf
c congestion by
removing capacity bottlenecks through capacity expansion, and you will favor
the application of advanced technologies to improve the ef
c engineer, you will seek to reduce traf
ciency of the road
network.
c congestion are
many and diverse. In these examples there is no single overall solution to the
congestion problem that meets every situation because the contexts are different.
And where these contexts do not overlap it is usually impossible to
These examples show that the sources and perspectives of traf
find a solution
strategy that satis
es every need.
