The cost of traffic jams

In many cities around the world, traffic congestion has become an obsession but it is so familiar that no one seems to care about effectively solving this problem.

In many cities around the world, traffic congestion has become an obsession but it is so familiar that no one seems to care about effectively solving this problem. In Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, most of the day is spent on commuting.Peter Elias, a lecturer specializing in planning at the University of Lagos, says traffic jams usually start around 6 a.m. and last for at least 9 o’clock. From 13:00 to 15:00, parents pick up their children to go to school to block the road. Then, Lagos slips during the evening rush hour, which can last until 20-21h. Traffic jam in Lagos Along with the rapid development of Lagos, the traffic congestion in this city is getting worse. The travel speed was so slow that the authorities even installed a television around a roundabout so that drivers could watch entertainment. Satellite maker Tomtom and data company INRIX used to rank cities by traffic congestion. Outstanding on the list are often cities in rich, above-middle-income countries. Examples of traffic jams include Cairo (Egypt), Delhi (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Jakarta (Indonesia), Lagos (Nigeria), Manila (Philippines), Nairobi (Kenya) and Sao Paulo (Brazil). ). Most of these cities have 3 things in common. The first is too crowded. Second, with the exception of Delhi, nowhere has a fast and widespread rail-based public transport system so people have very few travel options. Third, these cities are in a trend to rapidly increase the number of private vehicles. In Delhi, the number of motorbikes increased from 4.3 million units in 2011 to 6.7 million units in 2017. Cars increased from 2.2 million units of lane to 3.2 million units. at the end of the month, because at that time, the workers receive salary before they can buy gas. Chart of increase in private vehicles and declining public transport in major Indian cities over the years. Source: Times of India According to Nation Thailand, private vehicles in Bangkok as of 2018 were 9.7 million vehicles, 8 times more than the capacity of the infrastructure system. Besides, the area for static traffic is also alarmingly low, only 8-10% compared with 20-30% in Western countries. While everyone is upset with traffic jams, it’s a reality that’s unavoidable in many major cities. Economists believe this situation is a huge drain on the country’s resources. The Bangkok Post in 2019 stated that traffic jam caused people in the Thai capital to lose 97 million baht / day (74 billion VND) and 3.5 billion baht / year (27,000 billion VND) for fuel. . The city’s economy also suffered a lot of damage from traffic congestion. About 11 billion baht / year is wasted due to the time people are congested on the road every day. The two major cities of Vietnam, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, also lose billions of dollars each year due to traffic. According to calculations, each year Ho Chi Minh City lost about 1.2 million working hours, 1.3 billion USD / year due to traffic congestion and 2.3 billion USD due to environmental pollution from motor vehicles. . Evaluation from the Institute of Transportation Strategy and Development (Ministry of Transport) also said that congestion causes damage to the city. Hanoi is about $ 1-1.2 billion a year. Travel time on the same distance in Hanoi takes up to 45 minutes, while Ho Chi Minh City takes 30 minutes. Meanwhile, INRIX estimates, traffic congestion causing damage to two US cities, Los Angeles and New York, is 19 billion and 34 billion USD in 2017, including fuel costs and loss of labor productivity. Every hour in traffic is also an unused hour for being productive. And, according to Matthias Sweet of Ryerson University in Canada, traffic congestion slows job growth in US cities because it prolongs commuting time on average by more than 4.5 minutes. In a situation where the situation could hardly be improved quickly, some people have figured out how to adapt themselves. For example, Nara, a housekeeper in Sao Paulo, usually takes three hours to get to work. She started off by walking 20 minutes to a bus stop. After an hour long journey, she walked to another bus stop and took the second train, which took about an hour more. Then she walked again. Nara can travel faster if she takes the subway, but she is afraid to squeeze among the teasing men on the train. She decided to choose the long-distance bus to create “a small world” for herself, immerse herself in music and reflect on life. She enjoys the journey. TomTom Traffic Index 2020 chart of the world’s worst traffic congestion cities. Percentage indicates the amount of time traveling on the road more than when not in traffic. In cities where traffic is often congested, very few drivers obey a ban on texting or making phone calls. Whenever the car does not budge, they turn to gossip with their friends, even focus on personal things like shopping online. Meanwhile, street vendors appeared everywhere, supplying from soft drinks, grapes, chips, eggs, hot water … to the drivers. A 43-year-old man named Lawal sells inflatable mattresses. He used to have a stall in a roadside market selling old clothes and phones. But the police cleared the market to reduce traffic congestion, so Lawal went peddling. Lawal likes slow-moving traffic, not a complete stop. Because of that, he can easily slip through the lanes to sell goods. But for drivers, many people are fed up with sitting in the middle of the traffic jam. Doctors at the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) conducted a study, measuring the blood pressure of drivers who pulled into a gas station when traffic was heavy, and compared them to those who pulled over. sparse traffic in the middle of the road. The results showed that people suffering from congestion had an average systolic blood pressure of 142 and diastolic blood pressure of 87. And those who drove on the empty road were in better health, with two figures of 123, respectively. and 78. Even a late driver has no effect on their blood pressure. Traffic jams in Delhi Despite all these annoyances, time spent in traffic jams seems soon to be forgotten. Scientists Eric Morris and Jana Hirsch have researched using US time to find evidence that people in big cities do not forget feelings of discomfort when rush hour. However, they found almost nothing. The traffic jam made those who were stuck angry. But when the flow of cars started to move, people seemed to forget this feeling. That could help explain why Americans (and other expats) often oppose measures like congestion charges, according to the two experts. In 1966, the Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar gave an impressive conclusion in his work.In the short story The Southern Thruway, a man was driving to Paris when he was caught in a traffic jam that lasted for many days. . At first, he and the other drivers were very angry, but gradually they created a miniature society, shared food and drinks, and turned a car into a hospital. But when the cars start to move, the protagonist goes crazy. Turns out there was no place where he enjoyed the traffic jam in the middle of the road.