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Geography Sec 2 ( mid year )

Traffic congestion

Characteristics of urban transport

Variety of transport modes

Mode of transport refers to the different types of transport use by people to move themselves or goods from one place to another.Modes of transport can be categorized into 2 type, public and private transport. Public transport refers to transport provided by government and private companies. Private transport refers to transport owned by individuals

Density of transport networks

A transportation network refers to the transportation system routes connecting with nodes. A nodes refers to a place where line in the network crosses or join. A route refers to the connection between 2 nodes. The greater the number of route and nodes, the denser the transport network.

Quality of transport infrastructure

transport infrastructure refers to facilities such as roads, railway and bus terminals. The quality of a transport infrastructure can be measured by the capacity, efficiency, reliability, safety and comfort level

Traffic congestion

traffic congestion is a situation whereby there are more vehicles than the road capacity. traffic congestion slows down the speed at which vehicles are moving.

where is traffic congestion usually found?

Traffic congestion can often be found in the central business district (CBD) where businesses and institution are concentrated in the city. Hence, the CBD is most well-connected part of the city to cater to high pedestrian and vehicular flow. Traffic congestion are found here because there are more people commuting to work here than anywhere else in the city

Causes of traffic congestion

Separation of work and residential area

People often work and live in different part of the city. Thus they have to commute to work. This increases the number of car on the road during one time

Movement from one part of the city to another to obtain or provide goods and services

People may need to move with the city to obtain goods and services such as grocery shopping

Inadequate transport infrastructure and poor provision of transport services

Inadequate transport infrastructure refers to cities transport infrastructure not able to handle the traffic flow due to reasons like not enough lanes on road or the network may not be well connected

Transport services refer to services provided to move people and goods from one location to another. Not having enough buses that come frequently and on time is one poor transport service example

Consequences of traffic congestion

Reduced productivity

Productivity refers to the rate at which goods or services are produced.It is measured by the output per unit of labour. productivity involves engaging in activities that bring economic benefit. Traffic congestion reduces productivity as more people have to spend more time on commuting due to congestion.

Stess on physical and mental health

physical health refers to the state of the person's body whereas mental health refers to the person psychological state. Traffic congestion can affect the persons health as sitting on a vehicle for hours can be tiring and frustrating.This can cause accidents or even death as drivers are more prone to falling asleep or losing their concentrations. Staying for too long in a traffic congestion is also bad for other health problems like asthma and lung diseases because of the fumes that the vehicles provide

Air pollutions

Due to the greenhouse gases emitted by the vehicles, the gases trap heat in earth atmosphere causing global warming. It can also cause smog, smog is a combination of smoke and fog.

Noise pollution

it is noisy in a traffic congestion because of vehicle engines and other stuffs

Managing traffic congestion

Making public transport a mode of choice

Public transport usually carry more passengers than cars, so taking a public transport instead of a car can greatly reduces the number of vehicles on the road at one time.

Integrated public transport system

An integrated public transport system that is seen as a whole. It encourages people to take public transport as it is convenient and makes commuting smooth

Advantages: make public commuting more convenient, accessible and efficient.

Disadvantages: Requires extensive planning and cost.

Bus lane schemes

Bus lanes are lanes made for private buses to travel on specific days and time only. This allows public commuters to travel using buses smoothly and quickly. This increases the bus speed and reliability.

Advantages: allow buses to move quickly so that buses will not be held up during traffic congestion, buses will arrive on schedule more often during peak hours. This make travelling with buses more appealing

Disadvantages: the success of bus lane schemes depends on the compliance of drivers, take away precious road capacity for other driver which may lead to traffic congestion for private car users

Expansions of rail networks

The expansion of rail networks means increasing the number of locations that train can reach so more people would want to travel by train as it is more convenient.

Advantages: Trains have high capacities , people can travel to places that were not accessible by trains

Disadvantages: expensive, may cut through building and housing estates, causing inconveniences as noise is produced when building rail networks.

Increased capacity and frequency of buses and rail

It means to make the public transport network of buses and trains to be more efficient by increasing how many people these transports can carry and how frequent they arrives.

Advantages: more people can be transported to places within a short time

Disadvantage: Costly

Road pricing

road pricing refers to traffic management that charges driver when they use certain roads.

Advantages: the higher cost discourage driving during peak hours, encourage the use of public transport

Disadvantages: traffic is diverted to other roads and may cause congestion elsewhere

Increased parking fees

parking fees can be increased to manage road usage. This would increase the cost of driving especially to and from CBD. It would also encourage people to use public transport as it is expensive to use private transport

Advantages: discourages the use of private transport

Disadvantages: may result in illegal parking which may block or pose a danger to other drivers

Enhanced traffic monitoring

In the event of a vehicle breakdown or an accident, live information can be broadcasted to drivers on the road so that they can use an alternate routes

Advantages: Drivers can avoid places with traffic congestion

Disadvantages: does not reduce the amount of vehicle on a road

Telecommuting

Telecommuting refers to a work arrangement whereby employee does not have to commute to the workplace to work

Advantages: Greatly reduces the amount of vehicle as people do not have to commute to work

Encourage Cycling

Bicycles are environmentally friendly and convenient due to the mobility it provides

Advantages: Flexible and mobile , environmentally friendly and sustainable

Disadvantages: dangerous because cycling lanes are close to motor vehicles, some cities are not suitable due to layout and traffic condition