E-Briefing October 1999 Arriving late has become a way of life for many commuters as traffic congestion worsens. The good news: it's not JUST your imagination. Traffic in many metropolitan areas is increasing. Suburban regions are growing in terms of residents and jobs, consuming land...and new growth means more time sitting in traffic. The traffic crunch is felt almost everywhere: from Salt Lake City, Utah; Atlanta, Georgia, and Columbus, Ohio, to London, England. (For example, Columbus is expected to add 400,000 people and the number of jobs will increase by 24 percent over the next 20 years...traffic levels are expected to grow by at least a third over the next 20 years in London.) Table of contents 1. Defining the challenge A. Atlanta: "the worst" B. Road systems are destiny C. Widening roadways, a stop-gap method 2. Solutions in the planning stages A. Better materials may mean less construction, fewer delays B. Early warning system to ease traffic tie ups C. Smart cards to track road use? D. Designs of the future to be more dimunitive E. Blame male drivers F. Getting on the road earlier A. ATLANTA: THE WORST Ohio Eminent Scholar David Gosling of the University of Cincinnati is an internationally respected transportation researcher: "Atlanta has the worst traffic in the United States...a small New England town anywhere in the Northeast has the best. About the only people who love traffic are retailers in downtowns or on Main Streets who benefit from the bustle and sense of busyness. For retailers in malls, it's bad. It gives would-be shoppers another visual and psychological barrier to cross." Among his favorite efforts aimed at reducing traffic: Miami Beach's electrowave shuttle, which carried 1.5 million passengers on 7 electric buses in its first year of operation, and Portland, Oregon, for creating self-contained districts that minimize the needs for auto use. contact: 513-751-7376 B. ROAD SYSTEMS ARE DESTINY Brenda Scheer, associate professor of planning, has examined today's "edge cities," super suburbs that contain office complexes, malls, hotels and restaurants. Her work has been published in the Journal of the American Planning Association, and she predicts a declining future for today's edge cities. Though they contain numerous jobs and generous square footage, "edge cities" will decline because congestion will eventually inhibit growth when traffic capacity can no longer expand. "It's simple. Roads are destiny. They road system you start with is what you get, period. European cities have medieval road systems to this day. When the whole of London burned down, it was rebuilt with the same roads in the same exact place...The more streets you have, the better flow of traffic. That's why downtowns have better flow than suburbs. No one in the suburbs wants more streets. They want fewer streets, and they want the street in front of their house to be a dead-end. This forces a huge amount of traffic onto major arteries." contact: 513-556-0211 C. WIDENING ROADWAYS, A STOP-GAP METHOD Reid Ewing, research professor at Rutgers University who specializes in traffic management, found in one of his recent studies that increasing roadways' vehicle capacity helps ease traffic only in the short term. In a study of a major Salt Lake City highway construction project, he projects that, initially, the expansion will mean a jump in average travel speed from 47 mph to 67 mph. However, within ten years, average speed on the "new" highway will decline to 45 mph due to swelling traffic volume. Within 15 years, the average speed will drop to 40 mph. contact: 732-932-3133 2. VARIOUS SOLUTIONS TO INCREASING TRAFFIC CONGESTION ARE IN THE PLANNING STAGES A. BETTER MATERIALS MAY MEAN LESS CONSTRUCTION, FEWER DELAYS UC engineers Bahram Shahrooz, Richard Miller, associate professors of civil & environmental engineering, and Arthur Helmicki, associate professor of construction science, are providing technical expertise on a major Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) project in Dayton where the world's longest composite bridge deck is being installed. The bridge is part of Route 49 where it crosses the Great Miami River. It will be 720 feet long and 50 feet wide. They are coordinating the evaluation of the bridge's performance, including the placement of sensors inside the deck panels for remote monitoring from UC labs. ODOT is comparing materials from four different manufacturers in hopes of finding one which can hold up for 50 years or more. Traditional concrete bridge decks typically need to be replaced within 20 years, causing more traffic tie-ups and construction delays. contacts: Shahrooz, 513-556-3677; Miller, 513-556-3744; and Helmicki, 513-556-6069 B. EARLY WARNING SYSTEM TO EASE TRAFFIC TIE-UPS UC transportation engineer Prahlad Pant is working on an early warning system for traffic problems so that drivers may one day get regular traffic warnings in the same way they get weather warnings. Prahlad Pant says sensing equipment coupled with computing power and telecommunications technology will be able to provide real-time estimates of driving delays. A prototype system is already in place which helps drivers plan ahead to detour around heavy congestion in construction zones. Unlike other systems which rely on humans to monitor traffic flow, the Travel Time Prediction System (TIPS) is fully automated. The Ohio Department of Transportation has used the system in tests along Interstate 71 and I-75. contact: 513-556-3690 C. SMART CARDS TO TRACK ROAD USE? Haynes Goddard, associate professor of economics and an expert in environmental economics, says congestion will be a "driving" force behind major changes. Right now, gasoline taxes cover about 70 percent of the costs involved in road construction, maintenance and related social costs like pollution, emergency services, etc. One short-term answer is road pricing, a solution that is already technically feasible. Drivers would be given smart cards that would track road usage. "When you get on a road, you would automatically pay for using it, which would hold down congestion. It would have a lot of benefits, including preserving farmland, encouraging city living and reducing sprawl." contact: 513-556-2621 D. DESIGNS OF THE FUTURE TO BE MORE DIMINUTIVE Gerald Michaud, associate professor of industrial design, who leads UC's best design students in pioneering car-design studios sponsored by General Motors Corporation and DaimlerChrysler: "Our students and the designers in Detroit, especially the younger ones, are focusing on smaller as better. The big vehicles that are coming out now are the last of the dinosaurs. Commuting and its challenges are part of the reason for the coming focus on smaller and more utilitarian." contact: 513-556-0295 E. BLAME MALE DRIVERS If nothing else works, pop culture expert Rebecca Borah, language arts professor, thinks maybe it's o.k. to blame male drivers. She assigns writing projects that focus on how men and women behave behind the wheel and has turned up the following trends: men generally become more frustrated with snarled traffic and are also more likely to engage in "road rage" behaviors than are women. Who is more likely to park the car and take the bus? "Based on my observations, I see more women taking the bus then men. I often ride the bus myself. (She does defend men in one regard: they are unfairly stereotyped for refusing to stop and ask for directions. "Most men will ask for directions if they...are really lost. Men are less likely to ask for directions if a woman is in the car, especially if she's critical of his driving or nagging him to ask for help. If men are traveling together, they're much more likely to ask for directions than if they are traveling with women they want to impress.") contact: 513-556-1792 F. GETTING ON THE ROAD EARLIER Morrow, Ohio, resident Lawrence Gilligan, professor of mathematics, commutes 35 miles one way. He's on the road by 6 a.m. and arrives at the university about 6:45 a.m. When he first began this commute six years ago, he says few people were on the road so early. Now, it's a different story. "Everyone's leaving early because everyone needs a cushion of time because of worsening traffic. When I first moved to Morrow, I got a list of people who lived in my zip code and came to the university every day. I sent each a letter offering to car pool. No one responded, and that's what you see on the road: cars with only one occupant." Gilligan also witnesses more "road rage" along I-71. One "surreal" incident took place about a year ago: "One guy had obviously cut another guy off. They were now going about 90 miles an hour, one guy driving his mini-van like a sports car. They were yelling at each other, making obscene gestures, cutting each other off. One guy got in front of the other and then slammed on his brakes. One guy kept signaling the other guy to pull over. He wanted to fight. Well, then they both do pull over. Then, the guy who'd wanted to pull over in the first place pulls out into traffic. The second man can't follow because he can't merge into traffic at this point." Another anecdote: one morning, traffic was just creeping along I-71. How bad was it? Gilligan saw a driver in the left lane ahead pull onto the left shoulder. Was he going to speed along the shoulder to get ahead? No, he used the construction worker's 'port-a-potty,' got back into his car and merged back into traffic just two cars behind where he'd left. contact: 513-556-4868 Click here to return to the most recent e-briefing offering.