Congestion countermeasures

Fully eradicating roadway congestion is neither an affordable, nor feasible goal in economically dynamic urban areas. However, much can be done to reduce its occurrence and to lessen its impacts on roadway users within large cities – congestion is a phenomenon that can be better and more effectively managed. There are many possible measures that can be deployed to “treat” or mitigate congestion.

classification

Congestion countermeasures include supply measures and demand measures.,which will be discussed in detail in the next section. Other than these two measures, an additional longer-term tool used against traffic problems is land-use planning and policy. It has the potential

To control the number and growth of major traffic generators along congestion corridors.
To establish sensible allocations of land for future development given present constraints and expansion plans for the transportation network and
To enforce balanced employment and residential development, thus reducing the long home-to-work trips.

Supply measures:

They add capacity to the system or make the system operate more efficiently. They focus on the transportation system. All measures in this category supply capacity so that demand is better satisfied and delays and queuing are lessened. Supply measures include

Development of new or expanded infrastructure: This includes civil projects (new freeways, transit lines etc), road widening, bridge replacements, permanent freeway lane conversions, technology conversions(a new rail technology, a modernized bus fleet and ITS)
Small scale capacity and efficiency improvements: This includes signal system upgrade and coordination, freeway ramp metering, re-location of bus stops, lane management schemes, bottleneck elimination through channelization and operational improvements.

Demand measures:

Demand measures focuses on motorists and travelers and attempt to modify their trip making behaviour. All the measures that are employed in this category aim to modify travel habits so that travel demand is considerably reduced or switch to other modes,other times or other locations that have more capacity to accommodate it. The demand measures include Congestion pricing, Parking pricing and Restrictions on vehicle ownership and use. Congestion pricing is the method in which users are charged on congested roads. This is discussed in detail in the next section. Parking pricing discourages use of private vehicles to specific areas. It includes heavy import duties, separate licensing requirement, heavy annual fees, expensive fuel prices, etc to restrain private vehicle acquisition and use. Heavy annual fees, strict periodic inspections and expensive fuel prices also restrict use of private vehicles. Intelligent Transportation systems (ITS) provide tools for implementation of both supply and demand congestion measures. Supply type ITS tools include early incident detection and resolution, optimized signal operation based on real time demand, freeway management with ramp metering, accident avoidance with variable message signs(VMS) warning of upcoming conditions(congestion, fog etc.,) and bus system coordination. Demand-type ITS include the provision of real-time traffic congestion information at various places for informed travel decisions.