Traffic congestion overview

Traffic congestion overview

Traffic congestion is a common problem facing many urban centres and cities. The problem is dominant in both developing and developed countries. Traffic congestion in Australia has been a significant concern to the national government. It has attracted multiple research, with researchers focusing on the causes and the various ways that the congestion would be reduced. Recent research was developed to establish traffic monitoring through social media platforms such as Twitter, in a bid to reduce congestion levels on the highways of Sidney (Gong, Deng &Sinnott, 2015). The Australian government has also invested in significant researches conducted to find out modernized methods of handling traffic congestion in Sydney and the rest of Australia. This research paper was conducted to capture the current state of traffic congestion in Sydney, Australia. The study captured the average speed of traffic in the city’s major highways, the congestion (average speed against the posted free-flow speeds), and the variability of the traffic congestion in time, on a 24hr scale. The results of the study were then computed into a bar, line graphs and percentages. The study aims at identifying Sydney’s traffic congestion in comparison to other cities such as Melbourne and Adelaide. The study opens a way for more research into finding ways of minimizing traffic congestion in Sydney, Australia.

Hypotheses

H₀: Traffic congestion has an impact on the economic growth of Sydney

H₁: Traffic congestion has no impact on the economic growth of Sydney.

Literature Review

The history of Sydney’s traffic congestion problem began in the early ages of horse-and-cart transport. The road transport in early Australia was developed to facilitate the transfer of goods from production to the market. It later grew to expand the market region in major cities at the time. Roads were built basically for local usage, and considerations on expanding market and population were not taken into account (Lay, 2009). Road construction in Australia was undertaken naturally following ancient routes developed by explorers (Transport and Infrastructure Council, 2015). The government did not invest in a planned road developed structure, which could be the primary cause of the current traffic congestion in Sydney and other major cities of Australia (Lay, 2009). This suggests that Australia’s road transport problems are rooted in faulty road structures, and could be best solved by the construction of modern road transport structures.

Some of the factors pressurizing Sydney’s road transport is a rapid growth of population levels as well as the growth of city structures such as buildings. The rising economy of the country also contributes to the problem.

A rapidly increasing population increases the weight of road transport. An increase in population leads to an increasing number of people commuting around the city (Willey, 2016). An increased commuting rate causes an increase in the number of vehicles transiting on the roads of the city (Johnston, 2016). A continuous increase in vehicles accessing the roads in Sydney supports the probability of vehicles exceeding the road capacity in the city (Verhoef & Small, 2007). Therefore, as the city’s population grows, traffic congestion is likely to intensify.

Growth in the economy of the country results in an increase in GDP per Capita, increasing car transport in the country. As the income-per-capita increases, rates of ownership of personal vehicles increase (Johnston, 2016). The increase in car ownership leads to increased car transport, which is a significant contributor to road congestions. Sydney records overwhelming car transport rates, justifying the traffic congestion experienced in its capital, Sydney.

In Sydney, roads are more congested at peak hours (early morning and late afternoon/evening), with motorists taking more time to commute into and out of the city. A report on the congestion rates in Sydney indicated that motorists take 70% more time in traffic during peak hours than it would take during the night (O’Sullivan, 2017). The rates of delay in moving into and out of the CBD area alternated during different times of the day (De Jong & Bliemer, 2015). However, peak percentage delays for transport into the CBD equalled to those of transport out of the city, for instance, delays into the city at morning hours increased to 70% while delays out of the city recorded as low as 20%. In the evening, delays out of the city increased to 60% while delays experienced when commuting into the city rose slightly to 35% (De Jong & Bliemer, 2015).

Road congestion in Australia is also attributed to the inability of the roads to accommodate an increasing capacity of vehicles in the city. A road is congested when an addition of a vehicle into its capacity reduces the free flow. Road sector in Sydney experience this problem, with the number of transport units accessing the roads at a unit time increasing with time (Moran et al., 2016). Generally, road service in Sydney and Melbourne ranges from free-flow and flow-breakdown.

The state of road congestion in Sydney and Melbourne attract economic costs on society. In an economist’s view, road congestion captures time, additional fuel and pollution of air. This is because vehicles consume more fuel when moving at low speeds (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, 2015). It is also arguable that the rate of vehicle breakdown increases when vehicles consume excess fuels when moving for short distances (Albanese, 2017). Reports in-state expenditures reported a cost of $6.1 billion in Sydney and $4.6 billion in Melbourne, accounted for road congestion (BITRE, 2007). The report also projected a doubled cost in the near future. Traffic congestion costs weigh on the economy of the country and affect the tax policy of the country.