We live in an era of rampant urbanization, where cities are expanding and increasing their population every day. Along with this, the number of vehicles on city streets is also growing: cars, trucks, buses and trams. But very often urban roads are not at all designed for such powerful traffic flows. How are cities tackling this problem and how are traffic jams handled?
Traffic jam - what is it?
Traffic congestion (or traffic congestion) is an excessive accumulation of vehicles on a certain section of the road. At the same time, road users move at a very low speed or do not move at all.
What is interesting, according to the Rules of the Road in force in our country, we do not have the concept of "congestion" or "traffic jam" in the legal field. Indirectly, traffic jams are discussed only in one paragraph of the Rules - paragraph 13.2. True, in 2006, it was decided to introduce a new road sign (temporary) on the territory of the Russian Federation, warningdrivers about traffic jams on the highway.
Combating traffic jams in the world is one of the global urban challenges. After all, the presence of constant traffic jams in the city has a bad effect on its functionality, it can often even paralyze the normal life of the city system. After all, if you imagine the city as a large organism, then its communication routes and roads can be compared with the arteries of the human body. Therefore, the municipalities of the world's largest cities pay great attention to this problem, inventing new ways to deal with traffic jams.
Street traffic - a bit of history
It's hard to believe, but the problem of traffic congestion appeared a long time ago. Traffic jams took place in cities already in the 17th century, and they were carriage traffic jams! It was at this time that many carriages appeared on the city streets, which were difficult for the narrow streets to cope with.
The second wave of traffic congestion in large cities falls at the end of the 19th century, when a form of public transport such as the tram appeared. For some time, the problem of traffic jams was solved in the 20-30s of the twentieth century in connection with the construction of metro systems in large cities. However, in the second half of the twentieth century, this problem again makes itself felt, and to this day, the fight against traffic jams in the world remains an urgent task.
The biggest traffic jams in history
History has recorded many examples of major urban traffic jams. We bring to your attention the three most famous of them:
- New York, 1969. The traffic jam is 70 (!) kilometers long. Cause:major rock festival in the city.
- Chicago, 2011. There was a real collapse of the city's transport system, traffic jams lasted up to 12 hours. Reason: Snowstorm.
- Sao Paulo, 2013. This is the biggest traffic jam in history so far, reaching a length of 309 kilometers!
The main reason is the human factor
There are actually a lot of reasons for this phenomenon. However, the most important cause of traffic jams is the human factor. On the road, you can often meet personalities in the style of "and I'll get through!". As a result - an emergency situation on a busy highway, a traffic jam and hundreds of drivers with a spoiled mood. A frivolous and frivolous attitude to traffic can have very negative consequences. Also, traffic jams can also form due to an unexpected breakdown of the car on the highway. This can happen to anyone, anywhere.
However, it also happens that a traffic jam forms on a flat wide road, for no reason. Such cases are much more interesting, in particular, for urban researchers, and the fight against traffic jams in this case becomes even more difficult.
Causes of traffic congestion
The reasons for their occurrence can be objective and subjective, permanent or situational. And it is worth noting that the fight against traffic jams is not so much the fight against the congestion itself, but the fight against their causes. Therefore, this issue requires careful study.
Let's consider the most basic and common reasons:
- violations in the design of the roadway;
- presence of complex unregulated intersections;
- lack of pockets at public transport stops;
- traffic light violations;
- availability of parking spaces in places not equipped for this purpose.
These were constant causes of congestion. Situational (or random) reasons include the following:
- blocking movement to move tuples;
- road repairs;
- weather conditions (storms, snowfalls, showers, etc.);
- gross violations of traffic rules by individual road users;
- traffic accidents.
Main consequences of traffic congestion
The consequences of traffic congestion can be very negative. Specifically, these are:
- reducing the capacity of the roadway;
- economic damage to entire city;
- loss of precious time by traffic participants;
- increase in harmful emissions into the urban environment;
- increased fuel consumption;
- urban noise pollution;
- extra stress for drivers and residents of the city.
Street traffic and science
It is interesting to note that the fight against traffic jams worries not only representatives of the authorities, but also scientists, in particular, mathematicians. They used mathematical modeling to answer the questions: "Where do traffic jams come from?" and"how to deal with them?".
Scientists have already found out that congestion can occur for no apparent reason or prerequisites. Therefore, they came to the conclusion that traffic jams can often occur on city streets due to the aggressive behavior of some road users.
The first historical example of solving this problem can be considered the appeal to the Paris City Hall of the famous scientist Blaise Pascal back in 1654. He suggested optimizing the process of carriage movement in the French capital. Profound research into traffic flow has been going on for over a hundred years.
Dealing with traffic jams: classic ways
Hundreds of minds all over the world are racking their brains over the solution of this topical problem. With the help of serious practical and theoretical research, humanity was able to develop the following methods to deal with traffic jams:
- improving interchanges and intersections, as well as building new ones;
- establishing public transport (the brightest example in the world is the Brazilian city of Curitiba);
- use of lanes with alternating direction of movement;
- correct adjustment of traffic lights;
- widening of the carriageway;
- introduction of entry fees to certain (problem) areas of the city;
- propaganda of rational behavior on the road;
- development of the subway, as well as cycling;
- active use of computer methods and technologies.
Fighting traffic jams in the world: interesting examples
Large metropolitan areas suffer the most from traffic congestion: New York, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Chicago, Moscow and other cities.
Interesting trying to solve traffic congestion in Athens. There, on weekdays, on even numbers, only those cars whose license plates end in an even number are allowed to enter the streets. On odd calendar dates, the opposite is true. Thus, each car can go to the city every other day. If the police notice a car in the city that has violated these rules, then its owner will have to pay a fine of 72 euros. A similar method is used in Sao Paulo.
But in Singapore they are struggling with traffic jams with quotas. As you know, this city suffers from a shortage of space. Therefore, in Singapore, the driver needs not only to buy a car, but also to buy a quota for its use. Quotas are sold at auction, and their average cost is about $8,000.
But how is the fight against traffic jams in Moscow? At the moment, the whole struggle comes down mainly to the construction of new interchanges and metro stations. A very useful project in the fight against traffic jams has become the Yandex-Traffic Internet resource, which has up-to-date information on the state of traffic flows in the city.
Thus, traffic congestion is an inevitable consequence of urbanization processes. The fight against traffic jams in the world is conducted in different ways, and scientists working on this problem are developing more and more newmethods of such struggle.
