What can cities, such as Houston (pictured), do to reduce traffic congestion? Image source: Shutterstock (#441927637)
Taking the Katy Freeway in Houston, the second-most congested freeway in America, as an example, educators from TexasWendover Productions have created a film that highlights the best ways governments can reduce traffic and congestion.
One solution introduced are ramp meters. As traffic slows exponentially, taking a small number of cars away from the road already helps a lot. “The ramp metering system produces an annual reduction of 2.6 million hours of unexpected delay,” a state report provides. A second way is to put a price on using particularly busy roads, discouraging drivers from taking their car to city centers.
For safety, roundabouts are highlighted as reducing the number of accidents drastically as they make head-on collisions close to impossible. A city in the Netherlands even went so far that they removed all signs and lights, which surprisingly resulted in less accidents and more fluent traffic. Lastly, there is point to be made for diverging diamond interchanges, which also cost way less than their traditional counterparts.
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