Project 3

Planning Issue: Urban Traffic Congestion
Demand>Supplies, Volume of Traffic>Available road capacity
2 Main Reasons:
1) Limited road capacity
2) The number of vehicles increasing

Limited Road Capacity:
--Indiscipline of road user (talking on cellphone when driving)
--Illegal parking on road side
--Hawkers on road side
--Accident
--Poor road design (no pedestrain bridge&underpass)
--The mixture of traffic
--etc.
The number of vehicles increasing:
--Urbanization
--Population growth
--Higher incomes
--Car price decreased
--etc.

Negative effect of traffic congestion:
--Delay and wasting time
--Increasing wear and tear of vehicles
--Wasting fuel
--Increasing air pollution
--Uncomfortable (affect mood of driver&passenger)
--Will delay emergency (eg. ambulance)

Economic Conflict:
Growth of demand==>Increasing cost of supply
In some cases, Increasing cost of supply < benefit we get
So, the congestion need to be tolerated untill the benefits rise sufficiently to justify the higher road construction costs.




Solutions:
As we know, traffic congestion because Demand>Supplies.
So, the solution could start from 2 aspect: Increasing supply and Reduce demand


Increasing Supply:
--Increasing road capacity (add more lanes)
--Creating new routes
--Traffic management(CCTV control and monitor traffic)
--Creating bridge, overpass etc.
--Road facilities improvement
--etc.



Reduce Demand:
--Parking restriction
--Reduction of road capacity to force traffic onto other travel mode
--Increasing road pricing, petrol tax
--Road space rationing
--Education, incentive to use public transport
--etc.


Other solutions:
--School&company control dismiss time, avoid peak hour or differ dismiss time
--Encourage online business(shopping online etc.)

For example, KTMB (Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad), monorail and light rail helped to solve traffic congestion in Kuala Lumpur.