Measuring Economic Costs of Urban Traffic Congestion to Business

Author(s):  
Glen Weisbrod ◽  
Don Vary ◽  
George Treyz

Key findings are provided from NCHRP Study 2-21, which examined how urban traffic congestion imposes economic costs within metropolitan areas. Specifically, the study applied data from Chicago and Philadelphia to examine how various producers of economic goods and services are sensitive to congestion, through its impact on business costs, productivity, and output levels. The data analysis showed that sensitivity to traffic congestion varies by industry sector and is attributable to differences in each industry sector's mix of required inputs and hence its reliance on access to skilled labor, access to specialized inputs, and access to a large, transportation-based market area. Statistical analysis models were applied with the local data to demonstrate how congestion effectively shrinks business market areas and reduces the "agglomeration economies" of businesses operating in large urban areas, thus raising production costs. Overall, this research illustrates how it is possible to estimate the economic implications of congestion, an approach that may be applied in the future for benefit-cost analysis of urban congestion-reduction strategies or for development of congestion pricing strategies. The analysis also shows how congestion-reduction strategies can induce additional traffic as a result of economic benefits.

Author(s):  
Isaac K. Isukapati ◽  
Hana Rudová ◽  
Gregory J. Barlow ◽  
Stephen F. Smith

Transit vehicles create special challenges for urban traffic signal control. Signal timing plans are typically designed for the flow of passenger vehicles, but transit vehicles—with frequent stops and uncertain dwell times—may have different flow patterns that fail to match those plans. Transit vehicles stopping on urban streets can also restrict or block other traffic on the road. This situation results in increased overall wait times and delays throughout the system for transit vehicles and other traffic. Transit signal priority (TSP) systems are often used to mitigate some of these issues, primarily by addressing delay to the transit vehicles. However, existing TSP strategies give unconditional priority to transit vehicles, exacerbating quality of service for other modes. In networks for which transit vehicles have significant effects on traffic congestion, particularly urban areas, the use of more-realistic models of transit behavior in adaptive traffic signal control could reduce delay for all modes. Estimating the arrival time of a transit vehicle at an intersection requires an accurate model of dwell times at transit stops. As a first step toward developing a model for predicting bus arrival times, this paper analyzes trends in automatic vehicle location data collected over 2 years and allows several inferences to be drawn about the statistical nature of dwell times, particularly for use in real-time control and TSP. On the basis of this trend analysis, the authors argue that an effective predictive dwell time distribution model must treat independent variables as random or stochastic regressors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
William Agyemang ◽  
Emmanuel Kofi Adanu ◽  
Steven Jones

Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana has witnessed an increase in the use of motorcycles for both commercial transport and private transport of people and goods. The rapid rise in commercial motorcycle activities has been attributed to the problem of urban traffic congestion and the general lack of reliable and affordable public transport in rural areas. This study investigates and compares factors that are associated with motorcycle crash injury outcomes in rural and urban areas of Ghana. This comparison is particularly important because the commercial use of motorcycles and their rapid growth in urban areas are a new phenomenon, in contrast to rural areas where people have long relied on motorcycles for their transportation needs. Preliminary analysis of the crash data revealed that more of the rural area crashes occurred under dark and unlit roadway conditions, while urban areas recorded more intersection-related crashes. Additionally, it was found that more pedestrian collisions happened in urban areas, while head-on collisions happened more in rural areas. The model estimation results show that collisions with a pedestrian, run-off-road, and collisions that occur under dark and unlit roadway conditions were more likely to result in fatal injury. Findings from this study are expected to help in crafting and targeting appropriate countermeasures to effectively reduce the occurrence and severity of motorcycle crashes throughout the country and, indeed, sub-Saharan Africa.


SIMULATION ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangyu Zou ◽  
Levent Yilmaz

This paper presents a self-organizing model to design effective traffic signaling strategies in order to reduce traffic congestion in urban areas. The proposed traffic signaling system is based on a pattern model of self-organization, i.e., digital infochemicals (DIs), which are analogous to chemical substances that convey information between interactive elements mediated via the environment. In the context of traffic systems, the DIs refer to information generated by vehicles and dissipated by the urban transportation infrastructure. Based on the exploratory analysis with one single intersection, we demonstrate that the DI-based strategy performs significantly better than both the fixed and trigger-based scheduling strategies in terms of queue length and waiting time under both fixed and dynamic traffic demands.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
Arbie Sianipar

Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) is one of the appropriate efforts to reduce the vehicle volume in order to solve the traffic congestion in urban areas. Nevertheless, the implementation of ERP requires to be supported by the provision of the adequate public transportation to substitute the private transportation. This study aims to find out the potential and the readiness of the implementation of ERP in urban areas. Ths study employed descriptive method using the performance analysis of the roads and the perception analysis of the user on the implementation of ERP policy. The result of the analysis shows that the level of V/C Ratio of the roads in Medan City was ≥ 0.80 and the level of service was D. The levels show that the performance of road service is poor; therefore, the traffic engineering and management in Medan City is necessary. The perception analysis shows that 56% of the respondents object the implementation of ERP in Medan City.Keywords: Analysis of Roads Performance, Electronic Road Pricing, Traffic Engineering, Urban Traffic Congestion. AbstrakERP (Electronic Road Pricing) merupakan salah satu upaya yang tepat untuk mengurangi volume kendaraan guna mengatasi persoalan kemacetan di perkotaaan. Namun, penerapan ERP perlu didukung dengan penyediaan angkutan umum yang memadai sebagai pengganti angkutan pribadi. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui potensi dan kesiapan penerapan kebijakan ERP di wilayah perkotaan. Kajian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif dengan analisis kinerja ruas jalan dan analisis persepsi pengguna jalan terhadap penerapan kebijakan ERP. Hasil analisis diperoleh nilai V/C Ratio Jalan di Kota Medan ≥0,80 dan nilai level of service D. Nilai tersebut menunjukkan bahwa kinerja pelayanan jalan buruk sehingga perlu dilakukan rekayasa dan manajemen lalu lintas di Kota Medan. Analisis persepsi menunjukkan 56% responden menolak penerapan ERP di Kota Medan.Kata kunci: Kemacetan Perkotaan, Electronic Road Pricing, Analisis Kinerja Ruas Jalan, Rekayasa Lalu Lintas.


Urban Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Hynes ◽  
Olga Bolbocean ◽  
Michael McNally ◽  
Mike Conroy ◽  
Daniel Bednarczuk ◽  
...  

Public transport transforms urban communities and the lives of citizens living in them by stimulating economic growth, promoting sustainable lifestyles and providing a greater quality of life. Globally, the healthiest cities have one thing in common, a public and active transport network that does not depend on each person owning a personal motorised vehicle. Growing dependence on the automobile has created a multitude of problems, some of which public transport can help solve. Adverse social, environmental and health effects related to automobile emissions and car-dependency suggest that using public transport will result in a decrease in an individual’s carbon footprint, will lessen overall CO2 emissions, and will help to ease urban traffic congestion as well as encourage more effective and efficient land use. With many urban areas experiencing ongoing traffic problems, it is acknowledged that any sustainable long-term solution must entail a significant public transport element. The aim of this research study, conducted in November and December 2017, was to obtain essential baseline information on service user satisfaction levels with the existing public bus services in Galway City, Ireland. By measuring levels of satisfaction, it is possible to build our overall knowledge of the public transport network and thus identify improvements in the service that would lead to an increase in bus passenger numbers and result in reductions in the amount of cars on the roads. Results suggest deficiencies in public transport infrastructure, such as Dedicated Bus Lanes, and the lack of attention to customer services are hindering improvements in the public bus service.


2018 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
pp. 01019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Koźlak ◽  
Dagmara Wach

The dynamic development of urban areas poses increasingly more challenges for the provision of transport services for the population. The concentration of the economic potential and population in the metropolitan areas results in the occurrence of large transport needs, and when these needs are met at the same time, the phenomenon of congestion occurs. The purpose of the article is to research the relationship between various factors contributing to congestion in urban traffic and the level of congestion in Polish cities. The authors have used statistical methods such as correlation and regression analysis. The research has shown that the most statistically significant relationships have occurred in the case of the number of business entities and the number of passenger cars. It can be concluded that the demand side factors are more important in Polish cities than the supply side factors or perhaps the current transport policy is ineffective. When effectively applied, transport policy instruments can play a special role. These instruments can contribute to reducing congestion in various ways, i.e. by implementing various sub-objectives, which include reducing the need to travel, reducing the use of passenger cars, improving the functioning of public transport and use of the infrastructure. The results of this study can be useful for transport policy makers at central, regional and local levels.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Vujić ◽  
Sadko Mandzuka ◽  
Martin Greguric

The problem with traffic congestion is particularly expressed in urban areas where possibilities for physical increment of capacity are limited or impossible. Significant in the approach to solving this problem is the usage of Public Transport (PT) and the implementation of various advanced control measures that can improve the quality of overall public transport system. The main objective of this research is to explore the possibilities of implementation of adaptive traffic control on signalized intersections giving priority to public transport vehicles through urban traffic network in the city of Zagreb. The possibilities of implementing public transport priority (PTP) technique in the city of Zagreb are analyzed because of specific traffic situations on defined corridors (location of stops, distance between intersections, etc.). With proper usage of PTP techniques (e.g. adequate detector positions, good estimation of PT vehicle arrival time at intersection) the total tram travel time can be significantly reduced. The Level of Service at intersection may be approximately retained because cross-street traffic demand was not ignored. According to technological level of traffic control system in the city of Zagreb, global implementation of PTP is not possible. So, for each intersection the PTP algorithm was developed separately, but mutual traffic influence of all intersections on the corridor was considered. The cooperative concept application within urban traffic control is considered as well.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5074
Author(s):  
Ioan Stan ◽  
Vasile Suciu ◽  
Rodica Potolea

Traffic congestion experience in urban areas has negative impact on our daily lives by consuming our time and resources. Intelligent Transportation Systems can provide the necessary infrastructure to mitigate such challenges. In this paper, we propose a novel and scalable solution to model, store and control traffic data based on range query data structures (K-ary Interval Tree and K-ary Entry Point Tree) which allows data representation and handling in a way that better predicts and avoids traffic congestion in urban areas. Our experiments, validation scenarios, performance measurements and solution assessment were done on Brooklyn, New York traffic congestion simulation scenario and shown the validity, reliability, performance and scalability of the proposed solution in terms of time spent in traffic, run-time and memory usage. The experiments on the proposed data structures simulated up to 10,000 vehicles having microseconds time to access traffic information and below 1.5 s for congestion free route generation in complex scenarios. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first scalable approach that can be used to predict urban traffic and avoid congestion through range query data structure traffic modelling.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5577
Author(s):  
Duc Nguyen Huu ◽  
Van Nguyen Ngoc

In Vietnam’s major urban areas, private motorcycles are the main means of transportation that are suitable for socio-economic conditions, current transport infrastructure, and people’s habits. However, in recent years, the negative effects of a large number and high density of motorcycles in urban areas such as traffic congestion and noise and air pollution have resulted in a gradual change in the public’s opinion of private vehicle adoption, especially motorcycles. The public has also urged the authorities to issue policies of limiting or curving the growth in the number of private vehicles powered by fossil fuels in big cities. However, in order to achieve the goal, other alternative means of transport should be proposed to encourage people to move to a more sustainable and eco-friendly form of mobility. The alternatives also should be consistent with the average income level as well as social characteristics. In recent years, along with the development of a highly connected public transport network, efficient and less-polluting vehicles including electric two-wheelers have been emerging, thriving, and drawing more attraction from Vietnamese people and policy makers. The spread in the number of electric two-wheelers in Vietnam’s major cities may be a sign of the transition to a more sustainable and less-polluting means of transport as an alternative to gasoline-powered motorcycles. In this paper, the authors aim to analyze the current road traffic status in Vietnam’s major cities, as well as shed a light on the transition to the greener and more efficient alternative vehicles to motorcycles in Vietnam’s urban traffic. Several recommendations for encouraging this vehicle type development are also important outcomes of this paper.


Author(s):  
Subhankar Das ◽  
Anand Nayyar

The cognitive city transport plays a vital role in setting the targets of monetary similarity and aggressiveness, social harmony, and reasonable significant development. As per the principle of urban development and versatility, the urban communities and their formative experts, which are dynamic in their considerations, are supporting neighborhood governments in handling portability issues, which shape basic examples over all subjective and dynamic populated urban areas. Interest for traveler and cargo transport is continually expanding in urban communities and towns, adding to movement clog, contamination, and car crashes. Understanding the movement clog is a typical test for governments and transport experts in all these urban formative specialists. As per them, putting the current versatility inclines on a maintainable cutting-edge way requires an aggregate rejig of urban portability.


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