Traffic
Congestion
Study
for the IPTS
Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and the ESTO
Network.
The project will present an overview of the problem of traffic congestion,
possible strategies, recent technological trends and possible instruments
for reducing traffic congestion.
Overview of the problem
The overview starts with a general definition of the problem. Congestion
can be defined as a situation in which limits of a system are exceeded
leading to unacceptable consequences. In a narrow view, the volume of
traffic exceeds the capacities of available infrastructure. This phenomenon
appears in all forms of traffic (road, rail, and air traffic), while
the forms of congestion are different: stop and go in road transport,
delays in air traffic and crowded trains or stations.
We will give an empirical overview of the situation (for the different
modes of transport). How important is the problem in physical terms
(how many people, cars, trains, planes are involved for how long?).
Local (especially City), regional and long-distance traffic must be
differentiated.
The quantitative problem can be evaluated in economic terms of direct
costs (time loss, additional fuel consumption) and externalities (emissions,
noise, etc.). Since no European data seems to be available, several
country studies will be quoted (Germany, Italy ...?). Preference will
be given to most recent data, preferably published in 1999. Time series
should show the trend of recent decades.
Some economic considerations will be made on the supply and demand for
congestion goods, bridging the gap between pure private and pure public
goods. Supply push and demand pull will be differentiated.
Possible
strategies
Four fundamental approaches to solve congestion problems can be identified:
-
to increase capacities,
-
to intensify traffic with given capacities
-
to re-distribute traffic among different modes of transportation, and finally
-
to reduce traffic.
Extensification
aims at increasing capacities (building more, larger/bigger and faster
roads, railways, airports/planes etc.). This however reaches ecological
and social limits. It also provokes rebound effects in terms of traffic
created by increased capacities.
An intensification of traffic can be reached by trying to re-allocate
traffic in time (reducing peak and increasing off-peak traffic), in
space (from congested roads, rails and airways to less congested ones)
and on one single road or track by "packing" cars, trains
and planes more densely.
The question of redistribution is to what extent traffic can shift from
highly congested modes to less congested ones (or to ones with a higher
potential to reduce congestion).
Reduction of traffic can be achieved by fundamental changes in a society's
organisation (use of ICT, more flexible structure of work and leisure
activities, alternative solutions through virtual realities and communication,
all of which can again induce rebound effects to stimulate traffic)
as well as preference shifts (localisation, higher evaluation of environmental
and social goods).
Overview
of recent technological trends
While an extensification, redistribution and reduction of traffic could
mainly be reached by an investment in existing technologies (with the
exception, perhaps, of some now high-speed systems such as "Transrapid"),
new technologies are mainly required for intensification. In this central
part of the chapter we discuss some of the most advanced technological
trends, such as
-
RDS-TMC (Radio Data System - Traffic Message Control): after ten years of development TMC is one of the most advanced platforms for ITS (Intelligent Transport System) applications across Europe
-
EURO-SCOUT and SOCRATES (System Of Cellular Radio for Traffic Efficiency and Safety): individual navigation Systems with two-way communication between vehicle and control room (Leitzentrale)
-
GALILEO: satellite-based navigation and positioning programme: increases in transport safety and intensification of road-transport
-
CIR-ELKE (Computer Integrated Railroading): aims to improve the capacity of railroads up to 30%
-
ETCS (European Train Control System): standardised and radio-based railroading system to improve the performance of railroads across Europe
-
LDSS (Local Decision Support System): aims at the intensification of data exchange between airlines, airports and ATM) Air Traffic Management
- CAPRI (Concerted Action on Transport Pricing Research Integration): seeks to facilitate the exchange of results from European level research
Switzerland
is leading in providing mobility-services in which a combination of public
and car (sharing) transport is offered by a single service company by
means of a sophisticated booking service.
Possible
Solutions
After describing technological trends in the preceding sub-chapter, this
chapter aims at giving an overview of possible solutions to the congestion
problem on a political, economical and social level. In other words: in
how can the described be implemented in the context of the real-space
of policy and economy?
While extensification requires mainly new (public and/or private) investments,
intensification can be achieved with technical as well as economic instruments.
Redistribution can mainly be achieved by economic instruments (and new
technologies for their implementation), while reduction of traffic requires
changes mainly in the socio-economic field. Acceptance of new technologies
as well as costs related to their (both public and private) may be seen
as an important obstacle to their broad introduction (which is often necessary
for their effectiveness).
As pointed out earlier, there are several limits to a further extensification
of our traffic systems. We already mentioned the ecological and social
problems and have to add economic difficulties. Criteria to evaluate the
different strategies are therefore economic costs, social benefits and
environmental damages. Some of the technologies discussed also bear the
problem of data security (since data necessary for these systems could
be used to develop highly complete pictures of individual movements of
individual persons in time and space).
As a result of the preceding remarks, most probably, a mix of approaches
would be the best solution. Also a better integration of different means
of transport (esp. road-rail and air-rail) might be useful. Since many
of the solutions mentioned require an international (at least European)
coherence, some of the institutional requirements are discussed on a multi-lateral
scale.
Contact
Fritz Hinterberger (project
leader) with Axel Nordmann and Francois Schneider
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