Who is affected by traffic congestion

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Environ Health Perspecter — Google Scholar. Lancet — CrossRef Google Scholar. Also, on a day when the traffic is unusually light the built in extra time may be of no use and the person arrives too early.

The stopping and starting in traffic jams burns fuel at a higher rate than the smooth rate of travel on the open highway. This increase in fuel consumption costs commuters additional money for fuel and it also contributes to the amount of emissions released by the vehicles.

These emissions create air pollution and are related to global warming. Road rage is a senseless reaction to traffic that is common in congested traffic areas. If someone is not driving as fast as the person behind him thinks he should, or someone cuts in front of someone else it can lead to an incident that is dangerous to the offender and those around him on the road. Road rage often manifests itself as shouting matches on the road, intentional tailgating, retaliatory traffic maneuvers and mostly a lack of attention being paid to the traffic around the people involved.

It is basically a temper tantrum by frustrated drivers in traffic. When you dial and request a police officer, an ambulance or a fire truck and the emergency vehicle is unable to respond in an appropriate amount of time because of traffic congestion it can be a danger to you and your property. Systems are available that help alleviate the problem by allowing the emergency crews to automatically change the traffic lights to keep the line moving.

Lee Morgan is a fiction writer and journalist. So that could have added to greater congestion, and will in the future. Another crucial factor contributing to traffic congestion is the desire of most Americans to live in low-density settlements. Eighty-three percent of respondents chose the larger, farther-out suburban home.

At the same time, new workplaces have been spreading out in low-density areas in most metropolitan regions. Past studies, including one published in by Boris S. Pushkarev and Jeffery M. Zupan, have shown that public transit works best where gross residential densities are above 4, persons per square mile; relatively dense housing is clustered close to transit stations or stops; and large numbers of jobs are concentrated in relatively compact business districts. But in , at least two thirds of all residents of U.

Those densities are too low for public transit to be effective. Hence their residents are compelled to rely on private vehicles for almost all of their travel, including trips during peak hours.

But most residents of those neighborhoods vehemently oppose raising densities, and most American regions already have densities far too low to support much public transit. So this strategy would not reduce future traffic congestion much. Peak-hour road pricing would not be politically feasible if policymakers put tolls on all major commuter lanes, but HOT lanes can increase traveler choices by adding new toll lanes to existing expressways, or converting underused high-occupancy vehicle HOV lanes to HOT lanes, and leaving present conventional lanes without tolls.

True, HOT lanes do not eliminate congestion. But they allow anyone who needs to move fast on any given day to do so, without forcing all low-income drivers off those same roads during peak periods. In some regions, whole networks of HOT lanes could both add to overall capacity and make high-speed choices always available to thousands of people in a hurry.

Respond more rapidly to traffic-blocking accidents and incidents. Removing accidents and incidents from major roads faster by using roving service vehicles run by government-run Traffic Management Centers equipped with television and electronic surveillance of road conditions is an excellent tactic for reducing congestion delays.

Build more roads in growing areas. Opponents of building more roads claim that we cannot build our way out of congestion because more highway capacity will simply attract more travelers. Due to triple convergence, that criticism is true for established roads that are already overcrowded. But the large projected growth of the U. Install ramp-metering.

This means letting vehicles enter expressways only gradually. It has improved freeway speed during peak hours in both Seattle and the Twin Cities, and could be much more widely used. Use Intelligent Transportation System devices to speed traffic flows. These devices include electronic coordination of signal lights on local streets, large variable signs informing drivers of traffic conditions ahead, one-way street patterns, Global Positioning System equipment in cars and trucks, and radio broadcasts of current road conditions.

These technologies exist now and can be effective on local streets and arteries and informative on expressways. HOV lanes have proven successful in many areas such as Houston. More regions could use HOV lanes effectively if there were more lanes built for that purpose, rather than trying to convert existing ones. Merely converting existing lanes would reduce overall road capacity.

Demonstration programs have shown that if firms offer to pay persons now receiving free employee parking a stipend for shifting to carpooling or transit, significant percentages will do so. That could reduce the number of cars on the road. However, this tactic does not prevent the offsetting consequences of triple convergence.

Restrict very low-density peripheral development. Urban growth boundaries that severely constrain all far-out suburban development will not reduce future congestion much, especially in fast-growing regions.

And such boundaries may drive up peripheral housing prices. But requiring at least moderate residential densities—say, 3, persons per square mile 4. In , thirty-six urbanized areas had fringe area densities of 3, or more. Those thirty-six urbanized areas contained Cluster high-density housing around transit stops. Such Transit Oriented Developments TODs would permit more residents to commute by walking to transit, thereby decreasing the number of private vehicles on the roads. However, the potential of this tactic is limited.

Even so, developing many of these high-density clusters might make public transit service more feasible to many more parts of large regions. Give regional transportation authorities more power and resources. Congress has created Metropolitan Planning Organizations to coordinate ground transportation planning over all modes in each region.

If these were given more technical assistance and power, more rational systems could be created. Without much more regionally focused planning over land uses as well as transportation, few anti-congestion tactics will work effectively. Raise gasoline taxes.

Raising gas taxes would notably slow the rate of increase of all automotive travel, not just peak-hour commuting. But Congress has refused to consider it because it is politically unpopular and fought by industry lobbyists.

Peak-hour traffic congestion in almost all large and growing metropolitan regions around the world is here to stay.