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The Impact of Traffic Congestion

Traffic congestion causes many negative impacts. It leads to time wastage and inefficiency in public transport systems, negatively impacting economic productivity. Idling vehicles in traffic significantly increases fuel consumption and air pollution from vehicle emissions. Traffic congestion also threatens public health by decreasing physical activity levels and increasing stress, which can raise blood pressure and risk of heart disease. Air pollution from congested traffic has been linked to higher rates of illnesses like coughs, sore throats, and difficulty breathing in children living nearby.

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1K views3 pages

The Impact of Traffic Congestion

Traffic congestion causes many negative impacts. It leads to time wastage and inefficiency in public transport systems, negatively impacting economic productivity. Idling vehicles in traffic significantly increases fuel consumption and air pollution from vehicle emissions. Traffic congestion also threatens public health by decreasing physical activity levels and increasing stress, which can raise blood pressure and risk of heart disease. Air pollution from congested traffic has been linked to higher rates of illnesses like coughs, sore throats, and difficulty breathing in children living nearby.

Uploaded by

Quentin Yap
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Impact of Traffic Congestion

Causes of Traffic Congestion:

Time wastage lead to inefficiency of public transport and negative impacts on


economy

In a congested traffic condition, the first thought of people is that time is wasted
when they are caught in a traffic jam. According to Rozmi Ismail, et. al (2012),
traffic congestion causes unpredictable time which causes the bus service
system in Malaysia to be inefficient. Other than that, Morgan (2014) also claimed
that, drivers will also face the same problem as they could not predict an actual
time to certain destination causing their working performance to decline. As a
result, economic growth is affected as time is wasted in a traffic jam which
causes every individual to be late for their work and appointments, leading to
loss in productivity for businesses (Hartman 2014). In Malaysia, heavily
congested highways in Klang Valley causes lost in manpower hours that will lead
to a loss more than RM12million per year (Gomez 2014).

Fuel consumption and pollution

In a congested traffic condition, fuel consumption is much more higher than a


smooth rate traffic as the fuel consumption rate is strongly associated to the
driving pattern such as stop and go, acceleration on-deceleration and so on
(Robinson 1984). The consumption rate of a motor vehicle increase in traffic
congestion will increase the fuel consumption costs of commuters thus daily
expenditure of commuters will be burdened (Morgan 2014). Other than that,
emission of greenhouse gases which leads to air pollution is also one of the
effects of traffic congestion (Barth and Boriboonsomsin 2009). A research done
by Barth and Borinboonsomsin (2008) also stated that the slow speed of vehicle
is strongly related to the high emission of air particulates namely hydrocarbons
and oxides of nitrogen. The research asserted that there will be a negative net
impact on the emissions of carbon dioxide whenever the vehicle is moving below
an average speed of 45kmph in a congested road. Therefore, all these will lead
to a set of consequences whereby enormous amount of vehicle spending more
time in the traffic result in a higher emission of air particulates which threaten
the clean air atmosphere.

Health of public

Traffic congestion also threatens humans health. One of the consequences is


increasing the risj of heart disease. Washington University carried out a study in
St. Louis showed a result that commuters who are caught in a traffic jam will
tend to have a larger waistlines and higher blood pressure which threaten their
cardiovascular health (Pollution Probe 2014). This is because they have lesser
participation in physical activities causing a decrease in cardiovascular fitness as
their time is wasted when they are caught in a congested road. Furthermore, Dr
Hagen Klsch, from West-German Heart Centre proposed that his study about
cardiovascular disease is also related to noise pollution which is caused by traffic
congestion that leads them to have emotional disturbance (Kulur 2013). The spill
over effects also threatened the younger generations. According to Hotz (2011),
Children who live in areas of high levels of emission (traffic congested area) will
perform poorer than children who live in areas with cleaner air environment. This
is because air pollution will causes children to be more prone to depression,
anxiety resulting attention problem in their studies. Moreover, high levels of
nitrogen oxide are harmful to humans whereas the primary cause acid rain is
contributed by the emission of sulphur dioxide. Carbon dioxide leads to climate
change as it is able to insulate heat from the sun. A survey is done by Omran
(2011) in Pinang Island, Malaysia demonstrated cough and sore throat is the
major illness caused by traffic air pollution which is 82.2%, asthma 55.6%,
difficulty in breathing 53.3%, followed by headaches 48.9%, red eyes 24.4% and
heart attack 4.4%.

Reference list

Morgan, L., 2014. The effect of traffic congestion. [online] Available at:
<http://traveltips.usatoday.com/effects-traffic-congestion-61043.html>
[Accessed 25 May 2014]

Robinson, R., 1984. Problems in the urban environment: traffic congestion and its
effects. [pdf] University of Wollongong. Available at:
<http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=wollgeo>
[Accessed 25 May 2014]

Rozmi Ismail, et al., 2012. Passengers Preference and Satisfaction of Public


Transport in Malaysia. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences. [online]
Available at: <http://ajbasweb.com/old/ajbas/2012/August/410-416.pdf>
[Accessed 25 May 2014]

Barth, M. and Boriboonsomsin, K., 2008. Real-World CO2 Impacts of Traffic


Congestion. [pdf] University of California at Riverside. Available at:
<http://www.uctc.net/papers/846.pdf> [Accessed 20 May 2014]

Barth, M. and Boriboonsomsin, K., 2009. Traffic congestion and greenhouse


gases. [online] Available at:
<http://www.uctc.net/access/35/access35_Traffic_Congestion_and_Grenhouse_Ga
ses.pdf> [Accessed 24 May 2014]

Hartman, D., 2014. The effects of traffic congestion. [online] Available at:
<http://www.ehow.com/list_6308569_effects-traffic-congestion.html> [Accessed
23 May 2014]

Gomez, B., 2014. High cost of traffic congestion. [online] Available at:
<http://www.thestar.com.my/Opinion/Letters/2014/02/18/High-cost-of-trafficjams/> [Accesed on 23 May 2014]

Pollution Probe, 2014. Traffic congestion. [online] Available at:


<http://cleanaircommute.ca/traffic-congestion/> [Accessed 23 May 2014]

Hotz, R.L., 2011. The hidden toll of traffic jam. [online] Available at:
<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100014240529702037335045770240003
81790904> [Accessed 23 May 2014]

Sanders, P., 2012. How traffic jams affect air quality. [online] Available at:
<http://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/01/05/how-traffic-jams-affect-airquality/> [Accessed 20 May 2014]

Kulur, M., 2013. How does traffic affect our health. [online] Available at:
<http://www.buzzle.com/articles/how-does-traffic-affect-our-health.html>
[Accessed 27 May 2014]

Abdelnasr Omran, 2010. Road traffic nuisance in residential and commercial


areas in Malaysia: a case study in Pinang Island. International Journal of
Engineering Science and Technology, 2(11), pp.6845-6856.

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