Traffic Patterns During Government Shutdown
The recent government shutdown has affected many Americans, as certain Federal agencies are temporarily closed or suspended, giving many Federal employees a period of indefinite vacation time. For Hampton Roads, a metropolitan area in southeast Virginia that is home to the major United States Navy, Air Force, and Army bases, as well as NASA, this means a significant portion of daily commuters will be off the roads during peak traffic congestion hours. As the area considers several options to help alleviate heavy congestion on the roads during peak hours, this situation sets up an interesting scenario that can be studied to see the effects of decreased traffic flow through certain roadways.
As the city considers different strategies to improve traffic flow such as increased Bridge Tunnel tolls and constructing another roadway, transportation planners will get an inexpensive look at what method may work best. As discussed in Chapter 8 of the textbook, constructing an additional roadway may not always alleviate traffic problems. Braess’s Paradox shows that sometimes adding a roadway can lead to a worse travel time for everyone on the road. Traveling a new, speedy roadway can become everyone’s dominant strategy, and in return becomes even more congested than the previous scenario, causing slower travel times due to self-interested behavior.
One analyst believes that a reduction of just five to ten percent of traffic during rush hour times would greatly improve traffic flow through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. The next few days could give insight if this theory is correct and whether dissuading individual travel and promoting public transportation through higher tolls is a better or worse option than adding another roadway.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/traffic/dp-nws-shutdown-traffic-impact-20131004,0,4620997.story