Introduction to the problem

In this very beginning, we were divided to some groups including 3 or 4 people within 2 classes to solve a problem based on the given theme. According to the theme 'Traffic Jam', I did some researches about how it could happen, what the positive and negative impacts are, and what the efforts are. Discussing about the traffic jam, we were all familiar with that thing. Traffic jam is a traffic congestion that happens on the road especially the expressway. Literally, most of the road users such as the students, teachers, postman, employers got the bad impacts that harm them. Here is some of my researches.

These are some of the negative impacts :

• Wasting time for the passengers and other road users
• Delays that result in late arrival for employment, education, etc
• Increasing air pollution from wasted fuel
• Stressed and depressed motorists
• Emergencies
• Unpredictable travel time
• Higher chance of collisions

Congestion can be reduced by either increasing road capacity (supply), or by reducing traffic (demand).

Increased supply can include:

•   Adding more capacity at bottlenecks (such as by adding more lanes at the expense of hard shoulders or safety zones, or by removing local obstacles like bridge supports and widening tunnels)

•   Adding more capacity over the whole of a route (generally by adding more lanes)

•   Creating new routes

•   Traffic management improvements (see separate section below)

Reduction of demand can include:

•   Parking restrictions, making motor vehicle use less attractive by increasing the monetary and non-monetary costs of parking, introducing greater competition for limited city or road space.

•   Park and ride facilities allowing parking at a distance and allowing continuation by public transport or ride sharing.

•   Reduction of road capacity to force traffic onto other travel modes. Methods include traffic calming and the shared space concept.

•   Road pricing, charging money for access onto a road/specific area at certain times, congestion levels or for certain road users

•   "Cap and trade", in which only licensed cars are allowed on the roads.

•   Congestion pricing, where a certain area, such as the inner part of a congested city, is surrounded with a cordon into which entry with a car requires payment.

•   Number plate restrictions based on days of the week, as practiced in several large cities in the world, such as Athens, Mexico City, Manila and São Paulo. 

•   Permits, where only certain types of vehicles (such as residents) are permitted to enter a certain area, and other types (such as through-traffic) are banned.

•   Incentives to use public transport, increasing modal shares.reness campaigns.

•   Promotion of more flexible work place practices.

•  Telecommuting encouraged through legislation and subsidies.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_congestion
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Traffic_congestion_at_A325.JPG