Los Angeles Has the Worlds Worst Traffic Congestion  Again
Traffic jams are getting worse. Co-ordinate to the transportation consulting business firm INRIX, traffic congestion in 2017 cost $305 billion in the U.s. alone. That's a $10 billion jump from $295 billion in 2016.
What Causes Traffic Congestion
In Los Angeles, the city with the globe'southward longest rush hour traffic delays, drivers spend an average of 102 hours sitting in traffic every year. This costs the city over $nineteen billion annually, with each commuter kicking in $ii,828.
Boston, Miami, and Washington, D.C aren't much improve, as traffic costs over $ii,000 per commuter in those cities too. In addition to wasted fuel, the cost of congested roads includes all the potential productivity that it wastes. If drivers weren't stuck in traffic, they could be doing something else.
Why do traffic jams even happen? Will they be fifty-fifty worse in the future? How should you, as a field service manager, deal with the expenses and challenges that come with traffic? We'll address all of those questions in this article.
But first, let's take a expect at the worst traffic jams in American history.
The 4 Worst Traffic Jams in American History
1. Bethel, New York – 1969
50,000 people were expected to visit Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York for the Woodstock Music & Arts festival. Instead, around half a 1000000 people showed up. This brought the New York State Thruway to a standstill for more than than 20 miles. Performers had to be flown to and from the festival in helicopters.
2. Houston, Texas – 2005
With Hurricane Rita approaching, around 2.5 million people evacuated the Houston metro area on September 21, 2005, which led to a massive 100 mile-long jam on Interstate 45. The congestion reportedly lasted for almost two days.
Image credit: Donald Rogers, Flickr nether CC By 2.0. No changes were made.
iii. New York City, New York – 2001
Post-obit the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11, New York City was completely locked downwards. Tunnels and bridges were closed. Public transportation was closed to everyone except emergency vehicles. Traffic was at a dead end throughout the city. Even air traffic was grounded, leaving many travelers stranded beyond the Usa. The gridlock went on for days.
iv. Chicago, Illinois – 2011
Over 20 inches of snowfall fell on the Windy Metropolis on February 1, 2011 in a tardily-winter blizzard that hit the hardest during the evening rush hour. Commuters who were heading north on Lake Shore Drive from downtown Chicago were affected the well-nigh. The conditions acquired several major accidents, and commuters were stuck in traffic for over 12 hours. Many cars became almost completely buried in snowfall equally they waited for the traffic to clear.
Paradigm credit: Victorgrigas at English Wikipedia [CC0], from Wikimedia Eatables
The Causes of Traffic Jams
According to the Section of Transportation (DOT), at that place are two types of traffic congestion: recurring and not-recurring.
Roughly one-half of congestion falls under the recurring category, which happens due to a lack of enough road capacity to accomodate a high number of vehicles. The other half of traffic jams are non-recurring, which are unremarkably temporary. Non-recurring congestion is mainly caused by bad weather, work zones, and accidents (which can range from pocket-sized incidents like a flat tire to seriously dangerous situations like an overturned hazardous materials truck).
Now, let's try to understand how different scenarios can cause traffic congestion.
Environmental Effects
It's obvious that adverse weather condition, such as snowstorms and heavy rain, has a pregnant effect on both traffic and route conditions. Even a light drizzle tin have an touch, since all the drivers on the road volition slow downward at the aforementioned time. In fact, road collisions increment past about 50% during rain and snow according to one study. And co-ordinate to DOT, bad weather contributes to 15% of total traffic congestion cases.
Also, environmental disasters like hurricanes and mudslides tin completely change traffic patterns for months, if non permanently.
Unfortunately, you can't command the weather. All the same, by using a road planner, yous can avoid getting stuck in traffic due to atmospheric condition conditions.
A daily route planner takes just 30 seconds to programme authentic and efficient routes. It accounts for weather and traffic, so you lot won't demand to worry nearly that.
Want To Encounter For Yourself How Route4Me Can Heave Your Profits?
Whether you want to slash the time it takes you lot to plan routes for your drivers, increment the number of stops they can make, or keep your customers satisfied knowing that your drivers bear witness upwards on fourth dimension… Route4Me helps you accomplish that!
Start Complimentary 7 Solar day Trial
Human Error
Humans are merely every bit responsible for traffic congestion equally the environment. From distracted driving to speeding, in that location are many instances where humans cause collisions, which creates traffic.
In fact, co-ordinate to a report past the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, speeding-related accidents accounted for 27% of traffic fatalities in 2016. Also, an estimated 650,000 drivers are using their jail cell phones while driving at any given time during the day, which shows you just how much-distracted driving is happening on the road.
Bad driving behavior can fifty-fifty pb to phantom traffic jams. This occurs when in that location's already a heavy volume of cars on the route and then a driver brakes harshly (ofttimes because they were distracted), which causes a ripple outcome.
Substantially, because the driver brakes so suddenly, the commuter behind them has to also brake harshly in guild to avoid a collision, which forces the driver behind them to restriction harshly to avoid a collision, etc. In one case a driver gets through the congested spot, it'll seem like absolutely zero caused the traffic jam at all. It just takes one mistake committed past i driver to slow anybody down.
Clearly, distracted driving and speeding need to be controlled. GPS tracking software tin can help businesses improve the driving behavior of their field employees, as it allows yous to monitor the location and speed of your drivers on the route in real fourth dimension. GPS trackers tin even come up with a speed warning feature. This characteristic will immediately notify you lot when a driver goes over the speed limit, so you can contact them immediately and tell them to slow down.
In a nutshell, you need to track your field employees' driving activities and provide feedback and grooming when improper driving beliefs occurs. Luckily, Route4Me offers Safety4Me, which allows you to do exactly that. When Safety4Me detects dangerous driving behavior from a particular driver, such as hard acceleration or harsh cornering, it automatically assigns them to a preparation lesson focused on what they need to improve.
Check out this article to learn more than about Safety4Me.
Poor Infrastructure
The infrastructure built to accommodate vehicles is often some other reason for excessive traffic congestion. For example, when poor quality construction materials are used to build roads, it could lead to potholes, which can slow cars down and create traffic.
According to DOT, bottlenecks lone account for 40% of traffic congestion. And improving infrastructure means construction, which accounts for x% of traffic congestion.
Just not all problems with road infrastructure are the direct fault of engineers. Sometimes, the need to use a route increases apace, and the engineers might not have been able to foresee such high demand when they were planning the road.
Mechanical Failure
Mechanical failure, such equally a sudden vehicle breakdown, can create traffic congestion besides. Sometimes mechanical failures happen out of nowhere. For example, a driver might accidentally run over a piece of sharp debris in the road and puncture a vital part of their car that'due south exposed in the undercarriage. However, mechanical failures often happen simply because the driver waited too long to take their car in for routine maintenance.
Regardless of how a vehicle breaks down, the driver needs to go off the route as quickly as they can. But they might exist in a difficult situation, like driving in the leftmost lane of a five-lane highway, where they won't accept enough time to practise that. Then a vehicle could go stuck in the heart of the route, which tin create a huge traffic jam.
The Future of Traffic Jams
According to Cathis Elmsäter-Svärd, Chairwoman of Bulldoze Sweden and a member of the Global Time to come Council on Mobility, traffic congestion will simply be reduced once nosotros have an automated transport system in place. Such a system would involve various forms of transport (including self-driving cars, buses, and bicycles) that are seamlessly integrated by engineering.
Elmsäter-Svärd also believes that products will be delivered differently in the future. For example, pocket-size robots could be making final-mile deliveries. Alternatively, people could take their shopping delivered to a convenient drib-off location inside a sophisticated network, where they can then collect their parcels at their leisure.
All this should brand transport more efficient in the near-future and reduce the number of vehicles on the road. In add-on to the benefit of improved traffic, this would assist reduce dissonance pollution and better air quality.
Will this really happen, or is it just a pipe dream? Nosotros can but await and see.
So, what's the worst traffic in America that you've ever experienced? Have you lot explored whatever engineering solutions, such as a route planner, to counter traffic jams? Feel gratis to let us know in the comments section below.
Finally, answering these three questions correctly will ensure that y'all understand traffic congestion:
- How can bad weather cause traffic congestion?
- How can a GPS tracker help you reduce bad driving behavior?
- What is a phantom traffic jam?
Want To See For Yourself How Route4Me Can Boost Your Profits?
Whether yous want to slash the time it takes you to plan routes for your drivers, increase the number of stops they tin can make, or go on your customers satisfied knowing that your drivers show up on time… Route4Me helps you achieve that!
Outset Costless 7 Day Trial
lewandowskiblever.blogspot.com
Source: https://blog.route4me.com/traffic-congestion-history-causes-future/
0 Response to "Los Angeles Has the Worlds Worst Traffic Congestion  Again"
Post a Comment