Is it quite disappointed to waste more time on the road than necessary? In these days, people living in urban structure are struggling on the road all day long. Everyday, they have to move from where they live to their work, school, etc. and do their daily task respectively. To get to their destination, those people are going by cars, by trains, by buses, on foot and so on. On rush hours, all the roads and sideways in the city are almost full of commuters. Then, traffic jam as well becomes an unavoidable problem to commuters because the roads are not wide enough to fit the amount of the vehicle they demand. Rising traffic congestion is an inescapable condition in large and growing metropolitan areas across the world (Downs, 2004). Some researchers advised that people should use public transportation rather than private cars in order to solve traffic problem and for other benefits like less pollution, save money, etc. Despite of that advice, it is still believed that traffic congestion could not be reduced as expected by choosing public transportation over privately owned vehicles.
After being conscious of public transportation’s benefits, governments make it become attractive and convenient for commuters by applying modern technology. As we all know, public transport can carry a lot of people who want to move from the same starting point to the same destination or in the same way at one time. So, many people roughly assume that public transportation plays a vital role in reducing traffic jam. Anderson (2013) founded that average highway delay increased 47% when Los Angeles’s transit system was shut down for over 35-day period due to strike in October, 2003. It is undeniable that many private vehicles could need more space than a public transport. Thus, it is proposed that commuters are most likely to be able to avoid congestion conditions by using public transportation.
In the other hands, public transportation is not supposed to be the effective solution to traffic jam and need to find other possible factors. According to Jaffe (2013), the idea that public transportation relieves road congestion is both logical and popular but the evidence for it is decidedly mixed and the only hope of reducing congestion is establishing road fares. Then, many discussions considered upon other factors like traffic light system and greater road capacity appear.
Long queue of cars and buses at the traffic light areas which could easily be seen on peak hours is one of the major causes of traffic jam. Commuters have to pass through traffic light areas crowded with various vehicles to get to the place they need to go everyday. They must take longer on particular day when traffic light’s got technical error or electricity shortage. So, governments need to find effective solution to traffic problem around traffic light area. Aston University researchers recently claim that long queues at traffic lights could not be encountered by the aid of a new artificial intelligence system developed by them. If governments could have adopted that kind of technology on the real road, traffic jam on the whole road would be able to be reduced to considerable amount along with reduction for congestion around traffic light area.
In addition, governments need to make road capacity greater as well trying to solve traffic jam problem. To do so, governments can charge people money to enter all the lanes on major commuting roads during peak hours (Downs, 2003). This can sort out people using the crowded roads unnecessarily from commuters and provide wide enough roads for people who really need to go. Moreover, it can possibly help people keep good habits in associated with public areas and roads. Anyway, greater road capacity plays a vital role in reducing congestion conditions.
By taking account all above factors, it could be realized that only choosing public transportation over private automotive vehicles is not effective enough to reduce traffic jam as desired. Factors like traffic light system and greater road capacity should need to be considered and governments had better make commitment related to these factors for obvious growth in reduction traffic congestion.
References
Downs, A. (2004). Traffic: Why It’s Getting Worse, What Government Can Do. Journal of
Bookings Policy Brief Series.
Anderson, M. (2013). Subways, Strikes, and Slowdowns: The Impacts of Public Transit on
Traffic Congestion.
Jaffe, E. (2013). Public Transportation Doesw Relieve Traffic Congestion. Journal of City
Lab/ Transportation.