Impact of Transit on Congestion Reduction

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Recommended: The problem of traffic congestion

Traffic congestion is reaching to an extreme level in many metropolitan areas of various developing and developed countries. An efficient public transport can alleviate substantial operational and monetary effects on traffic congestion (Hyman and Mayhew, 2002; Pucher et al. 2007; Vuchic, 1999). In urban transportation areas, traffic congestion is considered one of the major problems (Cervero, 1991; Downs, 1992). During congested and peak hours, public transports can transmit a convincing amount of trips by improving overall transportation capacity and can discharge the surplus demand on crowded road networks. The average congestion reduction benefits for 85 US cities (Schrank and Lomax, 2005) can be estimated as 42.0 cents per mile or 26.1 cents per km of reduced auto travel (US$, 2005). It was done by considering 18,243 millions of congestion reduction benefits resulting from 43,403 passenger-miles of public transit travel. Here, a one-to-one relationship has been assumed between auto and public transit passenger miles. Using similar assumptions, the congestion reduction benefits of $736 million (Nelson et al. 2006) for public transport in Washington, D.C., can be interpreted as 20.4 cents (US$, 2000) per km of reduced auto travel. There were 13 studies of transit strikes reviewed by Van Exel and Rietveld (2001) to determine impacts on travel impacts and congestion. The study showed that most travelers switch to car as a driver or passenger. Other travelers switch to alternative modes and some trips are cancelled. Mode shift to car driving was 5 to 50 percent (average 28.6%), mode shift to car lift was 21 to 60 percent (average 29.6%), shift to other modes was 23 to 60 percent (average 39.8%), and trip suppression (stop travell... ... middle of paper ... ... 2011 Urban Mobility Report. College Station, TX: Texas Transportation Institute. Stopher, P. R. 2004. Reducing road congestion: a reality check. Transport Policy 11 (2004): 117- 131. Staley, S. R. 2012. Practical Strategies for reducing congestion and increasing mobility for Chicago. Policy Study 404, Reason Foundation. US Department of Transportation. 2009. Travel Profile of the United States. Washington, DC. US Department of Transportation. 2011a. Federal Transit Administration Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Estimates. Washington, DC. US Department of Transportation. 2011b. Highway Statistics 2010. Washington, DC. Van Exel, N. J. A. V., and Rietveld, P. 2001. Public transport strikes and traveller behaviour. Transport Policy 7(3): 227-246. Vuchic, V. R. 1999. Transportation for Livable Cities. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research.

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