• How a city's design creates congestion

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Wed Sep 22 21:30:44 2021
    How a city's design creates congestion

    Date:
    September 22, 2021
    Source:
    University of Texas at San Antonio
    Summary:
    City planners predict that as more people move into urban areas,
    traffic jams will get worse. That's why sustainability experts
    propose a new way to analyze traffic congestion. Using more precise
    measures to describe the shape of cities and considering other
    socioeconomic factors, the model, which was applied to nearly 100
    American cities, could lead to a better understanding of the link
    between congestion and land use.



    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    City planners predict that as more people move into urban areas, traffic
    jams will get worse. That's why sustainability expert Neil Debbage,
    an assistant professor in the UTSA College of Liberal and Fine Arts'
    Department of Political Science and Geography, proposes a new way to
    analyze traffic congestion.


    ========================================================================== Using more precise measures to describe the shape of cities and
    considering other socioeconomic factors, the model, which was applied
    to nearly 100 American cities, could lead to a better understanding of
    the link between congestion and land use.

    "Anecdotally, we often hear that more sprawling cities like San
    Antonio suffer from worse traffic congestion, but we wanted to test
    this relationship by analyzing a large number of cities with diverse
    urban forms." Previously, indirect metrics, such as population density,
    job location and the total number of homes within a defined area, were
    used to estimate traffic congestion. Working alongside with Mingshu Wang, associate professor at the University of Glasgow, a new approach was
    designed based on the configuration of land use within cities.

    The model also used new variables, including the level of intensity of
    urban land use and congestion type, and control variables, such as median
    age, total population and the presence of auto commuters to determine
    their impact on congestion.

    The researchers used congestion data from the Urban Mobility Scorecard
    (UMS) database. This source combines real-time speed data, volume and
    roadway information from the Federal Highway Administration. Specifically, congestion was defined according to annual excess fuel consumed during
    rush hours and free-flowing traffic, annual hours of delay during rush
    hour and off-peak times, and a time travel index based on the ratio
    between travel time during rush hour divided by the time of the same
    trip under free-flowing conditions.

    This more precise definition of congestion helped Wang and Debbage answer
    three specific questions: What city type, either those with one dominant
    urban center or multiple centers, creates more congestion? Which types of
    urban land use, such as high-intensity or low-intensity, are associated
    with congestion? What are the relationships between the shape of a city
    and congestion and how do those links vary depending on the specific
    type of congestion analyzed? The UTSA-Glasgow model indicated that
    cities with more urban land use were associated with higher congestion
    levels. The researchers' findings support the long-held belief that
    traffic congestion is tied to urbanization, but also highlighted that high-intensity urban land use played a more notable role.

    The researchers also found that the shape of cities impacted
    congestion. Cities that had one dominant urban core generally were
    associated with lower levels of congestion while more polycentric cities,
    those with multiple urban centers, suffered from more traffic. The
    study found that the shape of cities had more of an impact on general congestion than traffic just during rush hour periods.

    "By analyzing different land use intensities, we were able to identify
    more precisely what aspects of city shape influence congestion,
    which can hopefully inform more tailored land use policy responses." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
    University_of_Texas_at_San_Antonio. Note: Content may be edited for
    style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Mingshu Wang, Neil Debbage. Urban morphology and traffic congestion:
    Longitudinal evidence from US cities. Computers,
    Environment and Urban Systems, 2021; 89: 101676 DOI:
    10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2021.101676 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210922161930.htm

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