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What Is the Best Solution to Prevent Traffic Congestion?

Traffic congestion is an all too familiar bane in my country, everyday I’m stuck in traffic, amidst buses, cars, and motorbikes. It is a really uncomfortable feeling and I don’t know how to get out of it. Terrible!

All the Yes points:

  1. Cell phones
  2. Building highways/motorways/flyovers or painting bus-lanes
  3. Car clubs or car sharing/pooling
  4. The only long-term solution is no private vehicles.
  5. A longer long term solution
  6. Better information

All the No points:

Cell phones

Yes because…

A lot of people complain that people yakking on phones are the biggest players in causing traffic-jams/accidents/road-problems, but Cell phone technology can and is used greatly to determine which routes are the most congested, so as to signal drivers to change routes on the basis of the information.

the more congested a road the more cell phones on that road, signalin the artificially intelligent device in your car, reminding you to avert theg possibility of finding yourself in a jam [[http://washingtontechnology.com/Articles/2009/07/23/Cell-phones-to-aid-traffic-monitoring.aspx]]

No because…

[[http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/cell-phone-users-slow-traffic/]]
cell phone users make bad drivers, cell phones only give off signals when they’re on.

A study by the university of Utah ,reveals that cell phone users face brain overload distracted by all the talking and do not drive as well as they would if they were focused solely on driving.[[http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/News/TrafficJamBlameCellPhoneUsers.aspx]]

Building highways/motorways/flyovers or painting bus-lanes

Yes because…

Branching multiple roads going to the same place can divide traffic.

Bus lanes will keep Buses on one side of the road and not blocking/jamming every other vehicle on the road.

A motorcycle/bike/cycle lane will segregate two-wheelers from car traffic.

No because…

Bus drivers often drive outside of bus lanes, the same can be said about motorcyclists who twist/turn/squirm/worm through the smallest nooks and crannies between cars/automobiles, rickshaws and buses.

The problem is in a blatant/callous disregard for rules and other drivers. Everyone thinks selfishly, trying to get to where-ever as quickly as possible(even by breaking the rules).

Car clubs or car sharing/pooling

Yes because…

Car clubs have begun to take off in the UK over the last few years largely because of the added expense of running a car in the midst of a recession. Car clubs were already popular in continental Europe before the recession and have proved to be popular for a range of reasons. For instance car clubs are environmentally more friendly than owning your own car and save a member a significant amount in comparison to the costs of running their own car.

No because…

Car clubs do not acknowledge the fundamental problem that cars contribute to congestion. Car clubs thus only reduce traffic congestion rather than preventing it.

The only long-term solution is no private vehicles.

Yes because…

Using the subway/tube/public-buses/trams/school buses/cycles should be made compulsory so that traffic congestion does not permeate further and traffic is efficiently organized.

In the long haul, people need to learn to share resources; it will be a cheaper/cleaner(Eco-friendly:individual carbon footprints would be greatly divided(in lieu of forty people using ten-forty cars, forty-plus people will be using a bus))/better means of commuting.

Security should be tightened on public transportation(given the number of public bombing/shooting/bus-burnings in the news) to ensure safe travel.

No because…

There are strangers on buses, thus security concerns, there are no metal detectors or security checks as such on most public transportation.

Rickshaws and taxis are worst than private auto-mobiles/cars since only one paying passenger(and his/her comrades) can grab a cab at a time.

A longer long term solution

Yes because…

Would be Hydro/Solar/purely-eco-friendly-resource-powered efficiently organized/coordinated public transportation with stringent but quick security checking.

No because…

Better information

Yes because…

Better information for all transport users, be they pedestrians, in public or private transportation, to allow them to make better judgments. Traffic flows can be smoothed, and so congestion removed, with better information. An example is on public transport systems that flow in sequence, such as the tube. The trains may usually frequent but, due to some delay, have started to bunch together. The next train to arrive will get slower and slower as more people, who have waited longer than usual, pile on. Whereas the train after it is catching up, with fewer passengers to pick up. Knowing that the next train is chock-full, and the one after it is close behind but almost empty, would allow passengers to wait for the latter, thus smoothing out the congestion.

No because…

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Larry Arruda
6 years ago

Designing highways and traffic signals to comply with FHWA standards and policies.
Require proper driver training and more stringent testing for licensing.
Stricter enforcement of ALL traffic laws,
Post speed limits that make sense. (25 MPH speed limits create bottlenecks)
Remove antique traffic signal systems and install state of the art systems with interconnects.
Then hire professional traffic signal personnel to monitor and maintain it.

Robert Cantrill
9 years ago

Your joking about cell phones are causing congestion on road ways. How about retraining drivers that they are not race car driver’s driving sixty and seventy ten feet off car in front of them, it takes three & half seconds for the brain to send a message to foot to hit brakes. If they would increase distance to what truck drivers do would be safer. As long as they keep driving the way they are, makes my life flustrating, I have on front bumper bendix collision avoides system, when they cut me off truck automatically hits brakes. For the short drive they drive, all are moat rude drivers I’ve ever seen and its getting worse.

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