Improving NYC’s Traffic Congestion
New York City is one of the most traffic-congested cities in the U.S., despite the many transportation options for everyone to use. Right now, in an attempt to improve traffic problems, NYC has implemented tolls to help the automobile congestion. According to CUNY researchers, for a $5-$15 toll, the use of high-occupancy vehicles (HOVs) is predicted to rise, because carpooling can allow people to share costs. A $20 toll could decrease congestion by 40%, and encourages use of other modes of transport, but would most likely decrease the use of HOVs because there is a limit as to how much people are willing to pay before they consider another option. With this tolling method, the researchers recognized that this would relieve mostly outer districts of NYC, and that more effort would be needed to regulate the congestion in the inner areas. How should the inner areas be regulated then?
Right now, with the outer areas, we have a traffic model using prices for tolls as a way to regulate traffic. People can choose specific routes based on how much the toll fee is at a certain bridge or tunnel. Compared to highways, where automobiles and buses can travel, NYC’s inner areas offer subways, commuter rails, and public buses, and sidewalks that allow travel within the local areas of NYC. According to Jason M. Barr, professor of economics at Rutgers University-Newark, with all these kinds of transport, it is important to think about NYC’s transportation system as a large mega-system, instead of considering each mode of transportation as its own traffic model. After all, a change in behavior of one mode of transport can impact other modes of transportation.
The researchers at CUNY claim that public transit, walking, and cycling are most popular, but automobile congestion is a real issue. Thinking about the entire transportation system as a mega-network, we can think of different ways of travel to create an equilibrium in traffic routes, rather than creating equilibrium with each mode. Right now, to create incentive to promote more use of public transit, walking and cycling, Barr suggests that one should think about the time of day and which mode is most popular in that time of day. Prices should fluctuate for each mode of transportation based on that time of day and the popularity during that time. I agree that this is a very valid way of establishing incentive to make others take different modes of transport, but I also suggest making a price range based on the time it takes to travel in each mode. For example, if one were considering a price range for a subway route to Times Square, they should think about whether other options would take longer or a shorter time, and determine a price range relative to those other modes of transport. Since the time it takes to get to a certain destination is part of the total cost of going the route, a suggestion would be to make prices lower if the time takes longer; and prices higher if the time is shorter. Depending on each option, prices should be established with this consideration of time to the destination as well.
NYC’s traffic model is an advanced example of what we have learned in class about traffic networks. In an effort to find equilibrium among routes, there are many factors that one must consider to change people’s behaviors. Prices, time, popularity of each mode of transportation, and amount of people at a certain time of day all impact behavior. With the development of technology, it is becoming much more feasible to implement these types of systems to regulate traffic and resolve such issues in largely populated areas.
References:
“Solving Traffic Congestion: A Plan for New York City – Skynomics Blog.” Building the Skyline, 16 May 2019, https://buildingtheskyline.org/traffic-plan-nyc/.
“Solving New York City’s Traffic Congestion Problem.” SUM, 11 Aug. 2020, https://sum.cuny.edu/new-york-traffic-congestion-solution-city-college/.