Inefficiencies in the Traffic System

Introduction

Around the world millions of people are stuck in traffic, from crammed train rides to packed streets in many cities and suburbs. There seems to be no end to the amount of people in commute. All this time not moving releases the persistent fumes of the 21st century: greenhouse gasses. Developing a more efficient traffic system will make your commute shorter, all the while reducing emissions.

The Problem

Currently in America, the transportation sector releases the most greenhouse gasses out of all sectors at 29% of total emissions. Yet, a large portion of the time we spend in commute is waiting, and sometimes the time spent waiting even exceeds the time spent traveling. So being able to design a more efficient transportation system will allow for much faster commute times and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Solutions

There are 4 main ways to make transportation systems more efficient: increasing the total number of pathways from one point to another in order to divert traffic over multiple routes; implementing more public transportation so that there are less total vehicles in transit; improving the raw efficiency of preexisting infrastructure, such as synchronized traffic lights so that people don’t have to spend as much time waiting at traffic lights; and lastly reformatting or designing more efficient city formats, so that commute between residential and commercial districts is as efficient as possible.

Conclusion

Besides being able to increase efficiency in a few areas with relatively little costs, most of these solutions will be very costly and take some time. But the cost will be worth it as every person in the city would have a faster commute, saving time, money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions all at once. Slowly over time making the cost of these project less and less.

Bibliography

https://lyt.ai/blog/how-to-reduce-traffic-congestion/

https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/traffic-congestion-problems-and-solutions/

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181212-can-artificial-intelligence-end-traffic-jams

https://www.epa.gov/transportation-air-pollution-and-climate-change/carbon-pollution-transportation#:~:text=%E2%80%8BGreenhouse%20gas%20(GHG)%20emissions,contributor%20of%20U.S.%20GHG%20emissions.