Reducing urban traffic congestion - Research Paper Example

Having been faced by various divergent perspectives on policies and approaches for dealing with traffic congestions, what kind of recommendation can policy makers be given in order to ensure there are the best possible policy outcomes of transport? Traffic congestions in urban areas takes on numerous faces, takes place in distinct contexts, and is as result of various processes. Due to these reasons, there is no one particular approach to managing traffic congestions; and this paper is therefore is not dictatorial about specific management measures of traffic congestions in urban areas.

Nevertheless, there are quite a number of things that policies for traffic congestion management should consider if they are to reduce traffic congestions in urban areas. With that regards, this paper seeks to address traffic congestions in urban areas, its causes, costs and impacts, and management measures and strategies of reducing traffic congestions (Fielding 239). It is very unlikely that vehicle automation or roadway construction will alleviate most major urban traffic congestion in future. . ches and compare them qualitatively against different criteria: economic efficiency, effectiveness at reducing congestion, flexibility of access for urgent trips, and income distribution effects.

There are also recommendations made concerning measures of capacity-allocation with prospective to increase economic efficiency and to minimize traffic congestion (Laian 178). Introduction Traffic congestion are the incremental costs originating from among road users’ interference. The effects are significant under peak urban conditions in which volumes of traffic approach the capacity of the road. The consequent traffic congestion minimizes mobility and increases vehicle costs, driver stress and pollution.

Traffic congestion is considered as one of the primary urban transportation problems, with an annual approximated cost of $100 billion in the United States, comparable to other countries. For example, in 2000, in US metropolitan areas, the average driver endured 27 traffic delay hours, an increase from 7 traffic delay hours in 1980. Traffic delays are noticeably worse than in the United States in many other countries. In developing countries traffic congestion in urban areas is rising with alarming rapidity.

For more than 5 decades, economists have been advocating pricing of traffic congestion as the way to manage traffic congestion in urban areas; however, in spite some successes, pricing of traffic congestion is still encountering substantial resistance politically (Paulley 176). Urban centers and traffic have simultaneously developed since the earliest massive human settlements. Similar forces drawing inhabitant to congregate in large cities and urban areas result into intolerable traffic congestion levels on city streets and thoroughfares.

An effective governance of