Traffic Congestion/ Jam
Traffic jam and cities, it seems, go hand in hand. Traffic jam is a road condition characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased queueing. It occurs when roadway demand is greater than its capacity. There are several main causes of traffic congestion such as high traffic volume, construction, accidents, unexpected emergencies, events, visual obstructions etc. Traffic congestion has several negative effects. It is responsible for reduction of regional economic health, consequently reducing revenues, late arrival for employment, business meetings, education, or other settings for which prompt arrival is necessary, loss of fuel, air pollution, wear-and-tear of motor vehicles, interference with the passage of emergency vehicles, disturbing quiet residential communities and so on. Present attempts to alleviate traffic congestion include improvements of junctions, including broadcasting road conditions, building new roads and widening of existing ones, restriction of on-road parking spaces, resetting of school opening times, dedicating bus rapid transit roads, quotas on the number of vehicles on the road, traffic management and prevention of accidents, promotion of more considerate driving behaviour, reduction of speed limits, city planning practices that avoid concentration of traffic. Two methods that can be proposed to reduce traffic jam are an introduction of automated highway systems that could reduce the safe interval between cars increasing travel speeds and parking guidance systems to persuade drivers directly to vacant parking spots, eliminating the traffic caused by serendipitous parking space hunters in present-day city centres.
Traffic jam and cities, it seems, go hand in hand. Traffic jam is a road condition characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased queueing. It occurs when roadway demand is greater than its capacity. There are several main causes of traffic congestion such as high traffic volume, construction, accidents, unexpected emergencies, events, visual obstructions etc. Traffic congestion has several negative effects. It is responsible for reduction of regional economic health, consequently reducing revenues, late arrival for employment, business meetings, education, or other settings for which prompt arrival is necessary, loss of fuel, air pollution, wear-and-tear of motor vehicles, interference with the passage of emergency vehicles, disturbing quiet residential communities and so on. Present attempts to alleviate traffic congestion include improvements of junctions, including broadcasting road conditions, building new roads and widening of existing ones, restriction of on-road parking spaces, resetting of school opening times, dedicating bus rapid transit roads, quotas on the number of vehicles on the road, traffic management and prevention of accidents, promotion of more considerate driving behaviour, reduction of speed limits, city planning practices that avoid concentration of traffic. Two methods that can be proposed to reduce traffic jam are an introduction of automated highway systems that could reduce the safe interval between cars increasing travel speeds and parking guidance systems to persuade drivers directly to vacant parking spots, eliminating the traffic caused by serendipitous parking space hunters in present-day city centres.