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Abstract
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Traffic jams cost us time, money and health. In 2016, the average US driver spent 42 hours in congestion during peak hours, and those in Los Angeles, California, spent 104 hours. New Yorkers can walk almost as fast as vehicles crawl along streets in central Manhattan. Being stuck is frustrating and stressful. Jammed cars can burn up to 80% more fuel than those in free traffic. This leads to more air pollution and greater carbon dioxide emissions, increases the incidence of heart attacks, strokes and asthma and contributes to poor infant health, especially among city dwellers.
The economic damage of congestion last year in the United States, Germany and Britain totalled US$461 billion. Such costs are rising as the world’s population grows and urbanizes. The six most congested countries in 2017 were Thailand, Indonesia, Colombia and Venezuela, with Russia and the United States tied in fifth place.
The usual response is to call for more roads. But they don’t diminish traffic. Quite the opposite: more drivers move in. Nor will artificial-intelligence systems, ride-hailing services and autonomous cars ease the gridlock. Navigation systems draw more drivers to certain routes and can spread congestion to formerly quiet streets. The ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft, for instance, have increased traffic because people make more car journeys. Without ride-hailing, according to one US survey, around half of such trips between 2014 and 2016 would have either not been made, or would have been done on foot, bicycle or public transport. Similarly, self-driving cars use roads and fuel efficiently (and reduce accidents), but those gains might be swamped by an increased desire for cheap and easy transport.
The answer lies in dynamic road pricing. The location of individual cars can now be tracked to within a few centimetres. This makes it feasible to measure and price road use in real time according to demand...
Language: en |