What Can Be Done to Reduce Traffic Congestion in Austin, Texas

Factors Creating Traffic Congestion

Austin city is not an exception from the common problem which many other big towns are succumbing into. Numerous cities and big towns have for several decades been in struggle to rescue their dwells from the rampant traffic congestion problem. While our focus in Austin in Texas, several factors have been identified as the major cause of this unceasing city problem. One of the major contributing factors is the presence of too many personal cars in the as compared to public cars for passenger users. Secondly, there few constructed road in which are not quantitatively inadequate and qualitatively void of international standards to hold the capacity of vehicles flying in the town. The poor road infrastructure and planning has been a major source of congestion. This has consequently resulted into perpetual road works and repairs. In addition, there are too others road users who share the same road with the car vehicle users. Other factors that have been of key concern are the accidents which often occur along the roads. The experiences unbelievable number of accidents perhaps dues to careless driving arising from selfish and uneducated drivers. The city has a higher density of population. hence, there is sophistication of the town housing and road planning. Apart from the above factors, pedestrians also have been a challenge to the initiation of traffic jam and congestions. Some pedestrians so often misbehave and cause the vehicles to move in low speeds. Low speeds have also been caused by numerous obstructions of police road blocks and investigation centers. (Dunn, 1991)

Reason for the Failure of the Current Solutions

The current solution put in place are:

• Widening of the old roads (Martin, 1992)
• Shortcoming
• The widening of the roads process is failing because the contractors of the roads are taking too long than the agreed period.
• During the construction of the new roads, the constructing vehicles are using the same vehicles which are being used by the other passenger vehicles. (Foster, 1981)
• Introduction of toll roads on the high density roads
• The failures for is due to the fact since it many people using such road are merchandise and financially stable, pay the toll ahs not been a problem to them so long as he is going to pass such cost to the consumers product for compensation
• Increasing the number of traffic police officers
• Traffic police control has failed because of the lack of direct correlation of the main problem cause i.e. higher number of vehicle.

Qualities for the New Solutions

The new solutions will need to have speedy construction rules to avoid the contractors prolong distraction of vehicles on transit and to increase road space within the shortest time possible. (Papageorgiou, 1991)

Recommendation

In order to solve the above problem, I highly propose that the city should have to introduce additional lanes to the highways that should work hand in hand with the provision of high occupancy vehicle lanes. This will acts as an incentive for many vehicle owners to have a car pool that reduces the congestion on roads. This will ensure there will be no more traffic congestion as motor vehicles will move faster in and out of the city. For this case, I would recommend the Road and Transport ministry to work hand in hand with the traffic department so that they can know which road require additional lane to ease congestion. (Weckesser, 1976)

Reference:

• Dunn, W. (1991): Freeway Operations Projects North American. Washington
• Fuhs, C. (1990): A Planning, Design and Operation: New York, New York.
• Poole, J. (1991): Introducing congestion pricing on a new toll road: San Diego.
• Weckesser, P. (1976): Efficient Use of a Busy Roadway
• Papageorgiou, M. (1991): Concise encyclopedia of traffic and transportation systems: Oxford, Pergamon Press.
• Martin, W. (1992): The Automobile, the Built Environment, and Daily Urban Life: University of Michigan Press.
• Foster M. (1981): From Streetcar to Superhighway: American City Planners and Urban Transportation: Temple University Press.