Why Traffic Congestion Grows Exponentially, Why It Matters, and What To Do About It // An Explainer

Traffic congestion explained!

Every city has problems with growing traffic congestion, and everyone who lives in a city is impacted. And not only if you drive. If you take the bus, then your bus gets stuck in the same traffic jams as everyone else (unless your city has built true Bus Rapid Transit!). If you bike or walk, you're breathing in more noxious fumes and particulate matter, from more cars and trucks whose combustion engines are operating more and more inefficiently.

The cities with the most traffic in the US experience the worst congestion at commuting peak hours. In these periods of peak congestion, the delay people experience does not grow linearly with traffic volumes; it actually grows exponentially. Every vehicle you add to the network not only increases delay for everyone else -- it actually adds incrementally more delay that the last vehicle did.

This is why traffic is unstable, travel times are unreliable, and governments spend enormous amount of money trying to fix traffic bottlenecks -- like building ginormous freeways and land-devouring urban interchanges.

This video take a deep dive into the exponential nature of traffic congestion, showing how traffic signals work, how intersection capacity is allocated, what makes traffic so unpredictable, and reviewing some potential solutions. Hint: there is no simple solution to traffic. Building more "innovative" intersections and interchanges probably isn't it, and building Tesla Tunnels likely isn't the answer either. A possible solution? Congestion pricing, long a contentious issue in NYC, but implemented successfully in cities like Stockholm, Singapore, and London.

Other CityNerd vides referenced in this video:
- Bike vs Bus vs Car in Portland: https://youtu.be/-7UcvadTgac

Other CityNerd Videos on Traffic and Busy Streets:
- Freeway-Heavy Downtowns of the US: https://youtu.be/WYsJx1urS3Y
- Freeway-Light Cities of North America: https://youtu.be/5F3lZwG-BWk
- The Ginormous Interchanges of the US: https://youtu.be/4rgH0MUaHx8
- The Busiest Streets in North America: https://youtu.be/JE-cyJypmMY

Resources:
- Highway Capacity Manual 2010 Signalized Intersection Level of Service summary: https://www.seatacwa.gov/home/showdocument?id=11371

Photo Credits:
New York Traffic: Video by Life-Of-Vids from Pixabay
New York Traffic (Thumbnail): csr_ch from Pixabay

Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)

Twitter: @nerd4cities
Instagram: @nerd4cities
Contact: nerd4cities@gmail.com

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