Salt Lake City Region - Essay Example

Most of the urban areas in US are growing very speedily for the last decades. One among the urban cities that marked a very significant growth rate is the Salt Lake City region. It is the traffic congestion that suffocates the public life of Salt Lake City. Though there are actions taken against these congestions, the problems are still continuing. Population increase, multiplying vehicles, constructions of many new buildings etc. make the cities more and more congested. It is not always possible to find out sufficient lands for the development of the roads. The increasing land acquisition and construction costs and public opposition to freeways etc often hinders our way out of the congestion. Many recent studies prove that thousands of lane-miles of new freeways would be required in the next twenty years to sustain free flow traffic in most of the regions of America. Studies show that it is mandatory to implement necessary actions to get rid of the traffic congestions. Various countries of the world are trying to find out a proper solution for this problem. They are either looking for developing the existing ways to decrease traffic congestion or implementing new substitutes, such as, free ways or of other possibilities. A recent study conducted under the leadership of Lei Zhang of Oregon University states that “Most U.S. cities are employing a variety of transportation management, multimodal, and to a lesser extent pricing strategies to maintain/improve urban mobility and accessibility, in addition to freeway capacity expansion.” (Zhang, p.163). The studies are focused on the maintaining or improving the mobility and accessibility of urban towns like Salk Lake City. They are also focused on their development by analyzing and evaluating and sometimes seeking the opinion of the public to free ways expansion. The paper is an attempt to find out the most suitable system to Salt Lake City, without hampering its mobility and accessibility. This paper also studies about the possibilities of using the money, which have already been invested for the highway expansion, for the development, or social welfare of Salt Lake City. As it is one among the fastest growing urban cities of US, it is necessary to have a proper transporting facility which would be helpful in increasing its growth rate. Even though the discussions are still going on about implementing freeways, the sudden increase in traffic stands before them as a question. A recent survey conduced in Los Angel’s shows that “traffic is up by 20% and merging onto connecting freeways is nightmarish.” (Timbers). One among the ways to decrease traffic congestion is the expansion of two-lane roads. But some of the researchers of road safety have viewed that the percentage of road accidents is higher in two-lane roads. They have also been remarked that 6 feet roads are favorable to avoid imminent collisions because if there is enough space in the road, drivers will have the false sense of security that often leads them to accidents. To avoid these problems, they suggest that it is better to adopt other methods than depending on the highway expansion. But it not possible for one to reach in an inference that it is the only reason for accidents. Some of the researchers are of the view that mobility and accessibility can be improved by adding a rumble strip to the center line; use median dividers; or by adding passing lanes. The use of the rumble stripe to the center line is to an extent helpful in lessening traffic congestion and can be applied in Salt Lake City traffic. If applied, it will be helpful in deteriorating the traffic. Today road obstruction is a serious factor affecting day to day life of the people. The people who live in metro cities are never trying to eradicate overcrowding completely. It is clear that road congestion is a feature of prosperous cities. There are several possible management strategies with various impacts. The term mobility management means a growing common response to transport problems. The investments for highway, sometimes more cost effectives and the better option is that spend money for other areas instead of expanding roads. Though the investments for highways are high, it is recommendable for lessening traffic congestion. Work on highways often causes delays and dangerous driving conditions. The time taken for the repairing of highways actually causes for increasing congestion and thus by leading to accidents. The “increased number of accidents on I-95 in Darien while breakdown lanes were constructed in the early 2000’s.” (Bloomer). proves it right through the words of Franklin Bloomer when he portrays the real picture of highway expansion. The program of complementary mobility management strategies is a successful at reducing traffic blocks. Modern technology plays an important role in the process of reducing road congestion. The following statement revels the effective use of modern technology in the field road transportation: “Ramp metering” for example is a system of on- ramp gates to limit the number if cars that can get on an expressway at any given time .By controlling the flow of merging vehicles, this system helps eliminate clogging, keeping all of the traffic moving at a good rate. (A Regional Transportation Plan for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area-Green Paper No.6 Roads and Highways). A freeway is a particular designing of roads for the high speed operation of motor vehicles. It contains grade separations and interchanges to avoid cross traffic and railroad crossings. Free ways reduced travel times and accident rates. Freeway capacity expansion is in an extant a successful alternate for road capacity expansion. A comprehensive freeway traffic management program requires a mixing of approaches, techniques, operating policies and systems expect that promoting and maintaining a balance between the highway capacity and vehicular requirement. The success of freeway operation is based on the balance between capacity and demand. The deterioration of the traffic flow is the major reason for road congestion. A freeway operation is to block the traffic flow from breaking down and thus keep away from the amplification effects of traffic programs. At present the free way expansion system concentrate on organizing infrastructure, supporting systems, expansion of efficiency of traffic systems. The help of loop detectors and cameras makes traffic statistics and to gather information about congestion and other events. Decreased congestion and increased safety are the major advantage of freeway expansions. Freeways expansion opens the window of the sudden growth of economic development, mainly rising of property value. More than these advantages the implementation of Freeways system in city like Salt like City region, put forward some disadvantages. The opponents of freeway system have found that freeway expansion is often self defeating. The shifting of traffic congestion from crowded streets to a new freeway; people have the tendency to move more remote regions. Here freeway expansion simply creates more traffic. So the researchers and policy makers have a confused notion about the implementation of freeways in crowded cities. The following statements presents a different thought about the establishing of freeways and it give more emphasis on the process of capacity expansion than freeways. It says:” Policymakers are increasingly under pressure from constituents to build, expand and/or improve the regions freeway and arterials, as residents still view capacity expansion as the primary means of addressing calls for reducing traffic congestion.” (Executive Director’s Column: So What does it all Mean). The statement rightly comments capacity expansion is more urgent than making new transport options. Even if it has advantages, some disadvantages also can be spotted out. Freeways have been criticized by environmentalists, urbanites, and preservation lists and they argue that freeways system make the problems like noise pollution, sudden economic shift, and inefficiency public driving. Even it has some disadvantages; freeway system is, to an extent applicable in Salt Like City region. The concept of Pallet Systems is considered as an effective transportation policy in cities like Salt Like City region. The given comments reveals that the successful establishment of the mobile transportation system. It says: “Pallet systems are those where a truck or automobile is placed on a carrier that operates over a different guide way. Good examples of this are TOFC (trailer on flat car/freight piggyback) services and the Channel.” (Beimborn). It makes clear that in Britain and France it became a great success. To conclude, one can infer that traffic congestion is growing up day by day and congestion is unbearable for Salt Lake City region. So as to maintain the free flow of life, without being impeded by congestion, very strict actions should be taken; provided that they shall not be hampering the real life of the public. Alternatives are many regarding the lessening of congestion. But many factors prevent them from bringing it to reality. Free ways, two-lane roads, pallet systems, ramp metering, rumble strip to the center line; use median dividers; or by adding passing lanes etc can be used against congestion. As the repairing of highways will cause delay and dangers, it is recommended that it would be somewhat favorable to depend on other means to decrease congestion in the Salt Lake City Region. Works Cited A Regional Transportation Plan for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area-Green Paper No.6 Roads and Highways. Beimborn, Edward. Implications of Automated Highway Systems on Land Use Patterns: Pallet Systems. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 1996. 06 Feb. 2009. . Bloomer, H. Franklin. Widening Interstate Route I-95 Is Not the Answer. (PROVIDED BY CUSTOMER). Executive Director’s Column: So What does it all Mean. Western Riverside Council of Governments. 2008. 06 Feb. 2009. . Timbers, Amelia. Transportation, LAs Freeway Addiction Needs an Intervention. 2008. (PROVIDED BY THE CUSTOMER). Zhang, Lei. No More Freeways: Urban Land Use-Transportation Dynamics without Freeway Capacity Expansion. 2008. (PROVIDED BY THE CUSTOMER). Read More