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Freeway Congestion Essay The economy of a country may be determined by several factors . the growth of country’s wealth is coupled to factors such as the people population, availability of natural resources, their proper usage and general environmental management. During early time of our fore father, people enjoyed better environment due to low populations of all sort things. Peoples’ population was low and many of them lived in remote areas. Occupational space was never an issue to think of, as there was plenty of land available for any particular use. They preferred rural areas as most of them were gatherers and pastoralists. While others were substance farmers and hunters, they had the freedom to use select the site to carry out any activity of their wish anywhere. Land ownership was generally belonging to the community but not an individual as it is nowadays. The present system of individual land ownership has brought a lot of discrepancies in the distribution of people populations, infrastructure and other community amenities of paramount importance. Due to above reason different kinds of congestion has resulted leading to stresses and tensions in today’s global world. This has leads me to think of economic urban areas in term traffic congestions. (Schrank and Lomas, 2002) The interdependence between transportation and land use has long before been recognized m. Land use strongly affects transportation patterns, and the properties of the transportation network strongly affect the land use. This is well understood in a homocentric city with only commuting travel of the central business district. Most cities have become increasingly polycentric and job locations increasingly dispersed. (Anas and Small, 1980) It is also evident that noncom muting trips have become increasing important with the choice of residential location less strongly tied to workplace location. So these changes in land use are likely to continue to affect traffic volumes and patterns even more so. It is certain that the problem of traffic jams is so often to a point of describing it as a curse of the modern life. It is obvious that people must interact with one another through social life and that they have to travel long distances for purposes of business transactions. Motor vehicle transportation is one of the common methods used all over the world. Many major cities are fed and connected to each other by means of roads . so roads makes a very useful means of communication. People and cargo transport is a usual activity. Although this has proved very valuable to many developing and developed countries, it has also turned out to be one of the most embarrassing ways of travel and cargo transportation means. This is exactly due to traffic congestion in major towns and cities; which are also over burdened with all other types of congestions. Traffic congestion result out to be a miserable waste of time . Traffic congestion is the build up of traffic preventing efficient movement . it is one of the most significant problems faced in modern cities today. The products of this are other major problems such as air pollution, noise pollution, visual pollution, parking problems, destruction houses and increased risks of vehicle accidents. (Schrank and Lomas, 2002) It is not unreasonable to call up severe visions of traffic jam by the year 2050 with angry motorists hooting their horns, distressed not to be even later in picking children from school or making critical appointments in the developed countries. Many people living in developed countries continues to buy more vehicles, hence household vehicle ownership rates continue to rise evenly (Hu and Young 1994). The trend of continuous increase in incomes and falling costs of car operation, vehicle miles traveled per licensed driver continue their seemingly inexorable rise. Several transportation institutes have reported alarming increases in the traffic congestion in metropolitan areas over the last two decades (schrank and Lomas, 2002). The average number of hour that most people have suffered in a traffic jam is seven. At the same time, the travel hours to work have been increasing too, nonetheless dramatically. However, there are equal countertrends, such as rising of urban street surfaces and traffic management which includes the synchronization of traffic light, improved urban freeways and highways being added and expanded, production of new automobiles with advanced technologies not forgetting the increasing proportion of urban travel from one suburban location to another. The above trend is being offset or balances out due to increase in travel under severe congestion conditions. (Schrank and Lomas, 2002) The traffic congestion situation looks to a forgotten or a blind eye sight in most experts and this raises a weak presumption that the new improvement being under taken are leading to traffics moving more faster than twenty years ago. The fact remains that the future holds worse urban traffic congestions hence there is great need to find ways of alleviating urban traffic congestions. This can be thought in many ways as a cost that is voluntarily incurred in order to enjoy the higher incomes, amenities, increasing variety of consumer goods, enlarged scope for social interaction, and generally more stimulating and vibrant lifestyles the living in cities provides. Due to fully inefficient economy of many countries, which entails among other thing the efficient pricing and provision of transportation, traffic congestion is of paramount importance than the increase the price of any other commodity competitive in the market. Urbane economy should therefore in any way be ignored, but people should be focused out the failure to charge drivers for the external congestions they impose. Several traffic controls have been put in place for which some have worked well in some countries while other are void. Land use controls on a macro scale have been practiced in Northern Europe; this has proved very effectively in reducing the overall travel and congestion . it is noted that land use control on micro scale being practiced in the U. S where by residential are separated from non residential land uses, encourages car travel while mixing land uses at local level. (Schrank and Lomas, 2002) Another method that can be applied to the reduction of traffic congestion is the application of mass transportation mostly by focusing on cars. Many personal cars within the cities carry individual drivers with all the other seats remaining empty. this is quite uneconomical because of fuel consumption and the space utilization on the roads (Mohring, 1972). there is need to explore basic economic principles of mass transit that are likely effective in lowering transit cost function and traffic jams. This is one major factors leading congestion because people have valued comfort more than time and cost. Economists should come up with ways that consider vehicle size, comfort, acceleration of buses and subway cars, the length of subway trains and station platforms, the service frequency and density of buses and subway trains, procedures to mitigate bus grouping, expedite passenger entry and exit reducing the external marginal congestions imposed by buses on cars, and repair and maintenance rolling stock together with the design of fare collection systems. Pedestrian are nevertheless left out as they really cause and act as obstacle during road crossing. it is very important to accord the due respect to pedestrian at the zebra crossing . but such crossing areas bring inconveniencies to drivers hence causing jams. Traffic congestion will be alleviated if pedestrians and travelers’ walkways would be provided with fly over instead of zebra crossing. Thus pedestrian –car congestion should be given anew design and construction. Many developed countries suffer from traffic congestion due to restriction of shopping hours. such policies restring shopping periods should be ban to allow more shopping time and reduce congestion this may seem less conceivable as result oriented of target but many people take one shopping trip rather than having separate shopping trip. Liberalized shopping has desirable outcomes. (Schrank and Lomas, 2002) Considering that often accidents do occur, they are not only costly to the direct damage but also for the non recurrent congestion they induce. The involvement of engineers on the construction of roads is necessary to include economists. An Example of work done by Newbery (1988) gives valuable contribution of freeway and high way design ,construction, and maintenance, if sound cost- benefit analysis were practiced in all aspects of urban road engineering, substantial cost saving would be achieved . Urban transport economists make valuable contributions through analyze of sound cost benefit by state and local government. In conclusion, traffic congestion is a major concern in modern society . it affects our environment with environmental pollutions through the emission of fumes. People are put at risk from the danger of excessive vehicles which results from increased car ownership and commuting to fat residential places. Generally the solution to traffic problems is by widening the roads, creation of bypasses in the inner ring roads and outer ring roads . creation of more motorways and bus lanes to provide more space. Another way of improving the means is banning personal vehicles through imposing heavy levies on fuels and import duty. This can also be incorporated by banning cars from the central business districts and overcharging those with special cases on parking places. Reference: Abbott, J. (1990): the key role for public transport funding boost in Stockholm’s road pricing plans. Urban transport International Anas, A, and Small, K. (1998): Urban spatial structure: journal of economic literature Dupree, H. (1987): Urban transportation: New town solution. Organization for Economic co-operation and development, (1973): Effect of traffic and roads on the environment in urban areas: Paris Kanemoto, Y. (1980): theories of urban externalities. Amsterdam.