|
 |
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
|
|
