CE 457: Transportation Engineering V: Urban

Transportation Planning and Management

2.00 credit, 2 hrs/week

Lecture 3
Topic: Congestion Types and Mitigation Measures
Why Congestion Happens?

• Congestion occurs when transport demand exceeds transport

supply at a specific point in time and in a specific section of the
transport system.
• Under such circumstances, each vehicle impairs the mobility of others.
Domains of Circulation

• Congestion can be perceived as an unavoidable consequence of the

usage of scarce transport resources, particularly if they are not priced.
The last decades have seen the extension of roads in urban areas,
most of them free to access. Those infrastructures were designed for
high speed and high capacity, but the growth of urban circulation
occurred at a rate higher than often expected.
Domains of Circulation

• Investments came from diverse levels of government with a view to

provide accessibility to cities and regions. There were strong incentives for
the expansion of road transportation by providing high levels of transport
supply. This has created a vicious circle of congestion which supports the
construction of additional road capacity and automobile dependency.
Urban congestion mainly concerns two domains of circulation, often
sharing the same infrastructures:
Domains of Circulation
1. Passengers. In many regions of the world, incomes have increased
significantly; one automobile per household or more is becoming
common. Access to an automobile conveys flexibility in terms of the
choice of origin, destination and time of travel. The automobile is
favored at the expense of other modes for most trips, including
commuting. For instance, automobiles account for the bulk of
commuting trips in the United States. The majority of automobile
related congestion is the outcome of time preferences in the usage
of vehicles (during commuting hours) as well as a substantial
amount of space required to park vehicles. About 95% of the time
an automobile is idle.
Domains of Circulation
2. Freight. Several industries have shifted their transport needs to
trucking, thereby increasing the usage of road infrastructure. Since
cities are the main destinations for freight flows (either for
consumption or for transfer to other locations) trucking adds to
further congestion in urban areas. The “last mile” problem remains
particularly prevalent for freight distribution in urban areas.
Seven Major Causes of Congestion in Urban Areas
I. Road capacities are maxed out: The roads in most cities weren’t
engineered for today’s traffic densities. They’ve reached the limit of
what they can take. Throughout the 20th century, cities have tried
to solve the issue by building more and wider roads.

II. No real alternatives to driving: When people don’t have public

transport options in their city (or they’re inadequate), they depend
on private vehicles to get around. But surface area is limited for
building roads and parking lots.
Seven Major Causes of Congestion in Urban Areas
III. Cash-based toll collection: Traffic builds up quickly when lots of
cars travel into and out of cities at rush hour, and tolls are collected
manually. Vehicles have to slow down or stop completely, which
means longer travel times, and more emissions. (And collection
costs can actually eat up to a third of revenue.)
IV. Driver behavior: In dense traffic, congestion can happen for no
obvious reason. Sometimes, all it takes is slightly erratic driver
behavior, like sudden slowing down, for the notorious ‘ripple effect’
to occur. The slower speed creates a sustained traffic jam.
Seven Major Causes of Congestion in Urban Areas
V. No priority for public transport: Many cities still give the same priority
to cars as they do to public transport. This discourages the use of other
modes of transportation and also creates a competition for space, as in
Brussels, where cars, trams, buses, and cyclists all have to share the
same road.
VI. Traffic signals aren’t optimized: Traffic during rush hour is very different
from other times. When traffic signals are timed for a different kind of
flow, cars have to stop more often, journeys take longer, and traffic
builds up.
VII. Drivers looking for parking spaces: Up to 30 percent of traffic in cities is
caused by drivers looking for parking, especially where on-street parking
is free and off-street parking is available (or when there’s a big difference
in price between metered on-street parking spots and off-street
parking).
Vicious Circle of Congestion
Urban transportation is a highly dynamic system
where one component impacts on others with
retroactive (feedback) effects. Congestion is a
classic example of feedback loop. Pressures on
the owners of transport infrastructure (usually
the public sector) by different user groups being
impacted by congestion may often result in the
addition of new capacity such as new or wider
roads. This new capacity often results in lower
friction to mobility and this may impact on
urban sprawl as people may trade more space
for a similar amount of time.
Vicious Circle of Congestion
The outcome is likely to be an increase in
trip lengths, more trips and eventually more
congestion. Consequently, users, through
their modal choices, are recursively
influencing the development of the urban
transport system. Several North American
cities found themselves in a vicious cycle
that triggered an increasing reliance on road
transportation and on the automobile. This
vicious circle can be mitigated if urban
population and economic growth stabilizes,
lifestyles and preferences change or if
alternatives such as public transit are more
readily available.
Trends in Urban Congestion
Trends in Urban Congestion
Trends in Urban Congestion
Trends in Urban Congestion
Types of Congestion
• Urban mobility also reveals congestion patterns. Daily trips can be
either “mandatory” (workplace-home) or “voluntary” (shopping,
leisure, visits).
• The former is often performed within fixed schedules while the latter
complies with variable and discretionary schedules. Correspondingly,
congestion comes in two major forms:
Types of Congestion
1. Recurrent congestion occurs as a consequence of factors that cause
regular demand surges on the transportation system, such as commuting,
shopping or weekend trips. However, even recurrent congestion can have
unforeseen impacts in terms of its duration and severity. Mandatory trips are
mainly responsible for the peaks in circulation flows, implying that about half
the congestion in urban areas is recurring at specific times of the day and on
specific segments of the transport system.
2. Non-recurrent congestion. The other half of congestion is caused
by random events such as accidents and unusual weather conditions (rain,
snowstorms, etc.), which are unexpected and unplanned. Non-recurrent
congestion is linked to the presence and effectiveness of incident response
strategies. As far as accidents are concerned, their randomness is influenced
by the level of traffic as the higher the traffic on specific road segments the
higher the probability of accidents.
Major Sources of Recurring and Non-Recurring Congestion
Major Sources of Recurring and Non-Recurring Congestion
Major Sources of Recurring and Non-Recurring Congestion
Decline in Public Transit Efficiency
• Behavioral and response time effects are also important as in a
system running close to capacity, simply braking suddenly may trigger
what can be known as a backward traveling wave or shock wave. It
implies that as vehicles are forced to stop, the bottleneck moves up
the location it initially took place at, often leaving drivers puzzled
about its cause.
• The spatial convergence of traffic causes a surcharge on transport
infrastructures up to the point where congestion can lead to the total
immobilization of traffic. Not only does the massive use of the
automobile have an impact on traffic circulation and congestion, but
it also leads to the decline in public transit efficiency when both are
sharing the same road infrastructures.
Mitigating Congestion
• In some areas, the automobile is the only mode for which adequate
transportation infrastructures are provided. This implies less capacity for
using alternative modes such transit, walking and cycling. At some levels of
density, no public infrastructure investment can be justified in terms of
economic returns. Longer commuting trips in terms of average travel time,
as a result of fragmented land uses and congestion levels are a significant
trend.
• Convergence of traffic occurs at major highways that serve vast low density
areas with high levels of automobile ownership and low levels of
automobile occupancy. The result is energy (fuel) wasted during congestion
(additional time) and supplementary commuting distances. In automobile
dependent cities, a few measures can help alleviate congestion to some
extent:
1. Ramp metering
• Ramp metering. Controlling the access to a congested highway by
letting automobiles in one at a time instead of in groups. The
outcome is a lower disruption on highway traffic flows.
2. Traffic signal synchronization
• Traffic signal synchronization. Tuning the traffic signals to the time and direction
of traffic flows. This is particularly effective if the signals can be adjusted on an
hourly basis to reflect changes in commuting patterns.
3. Car ownership restrictions
• Car ownership restrictions. Several cities and countries (e.g.
Singapore) have quotas in the number of license plates that can be
issued or require high licensing fees. To purchase a vehicle an
individual thus must first secure through an auction a license.
4. Incident management
• Incident management. Making sure that vehicles involved in accidents or
mechanical failures are removed as quickly as possible from the road. Since
accident on average account between 20 and 30% of all the causes of congestion,
this strategy is particularly important.
5. Carpooling
• Carpooling. Concerns two issues. The first and most common is an individual providing ridership to people
(often co-workers) having a similar origin, destination and commuting time. Two or more vehicle trips can
thus be combined into one. The second involves a pool of vehicles (mostly cars, but also bicycles) that can be
leased or shared for short duration when mobility is required. Adequate measures must be taken so that
supply and demand are effectively matched with information technologies providing an effective support.
6. HOV lanes
• HOV lanes. High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes insure that vehicles with 2
or more passengers (buses, taxis, vans, carpool, etc.) have exclusive access
to a less congested lane, particularly during peak hours.
7. Congestion pricing
• Congestion pricing. A variety of measures aimed at imposing charges on
specific segments or regions of the transport system, mainly as a toll. The
charges can also change during the day to reflect congestion levels so that
drivers are incited to consider other time periods or other modes
8. Parking management
• Parking management. Removing parking or free parking spaces can
be an effective dissuasion tool since it reduces cruising and enables
those willing to pay to access an area (e.g. for a short shopping stop).
9. Public transit
• Public transit. Offering alternatives to driving that can significantly improve
efficiency, notably if it circulates on its own infrastructure (subway, light rail,
buses on reserved lanes, etc.) and is well integrated within a city’s development
plans. However, public transit has its own set of issues.
10. Non-motorized transportation
• Non-motorized transportation. Since the great majority of urban trips are over short distances,
non-motorized modes, particularly walking and cycling, have an important roll to play in
supporting urban mobility. The provision of adequate infrastructure, such as sidewalks, is often a
low priority as non-motorized transportation is often perceived as not modern in spite of the
important role it needs to assume in urban areas.
Thanks!