There Just Might Be A Way to Solve Los Angeles’ Traffic Problem

In Los Angeles there are only a few things more annoying than traffic congestion. For quite a long time the problem of traffic congestion has been having negative consequences for citizens and businesses alike.

According to research conducted by the LA Times (2014), Los Angeles is one of the most congested cities in the United States. In the year 2013 alone, Angelinos spent an estimated 90 hours in traffic. Furthermore, each person wastes an average of 39 minutes in the city of Los Angeles as a result of traffic congestion on the road. Therefore, the social lives of the residents end up being adversely affected by the traffic problem.

Moreover, business activities also get disrupted because of the congestion in the city. Businesses need to move raw materials and deliver their merchandise to the customers, and congestion leads to a delay in these crucial processes thus cutting down the profits. Congestion on the road leads makes business men to spend much time on the road which delays their activities causing a negative expectation in turn (Sorensen & Rand Corporation, (2008). Take an example of Jablon a business man with a family owned company who claims that he experiences slowdowns both in the air freight and vessel freight. His cargo is usually delayed to a period of around three weeks which interferes with the next restocking and this is a major problem in his business. The harmful impact on the economic activities is thus a major concern of the investors and people of Los Angeles.

In attempts to improve this traffic situation, there was a mechanism previously put in place known as Automated Traffic and Surveillance Control System (ATSAC). Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) started to use ATSAC in response to traffic overflow in the city during 1984 Summer Olympics. Sensors were implemented at every intersection, so this system was capable of regulating the flow of traffic without requiring physical adjustment by the assistance of an expert (Sorensen & Rand Corporation, (2008).

Even though the system was a bit to improve on the situation, it was still deficient. For instance, ATSAC was unable to tackle some conditions, such as when collision occurs. The system helps to monitor and make adjustment on signal timing for the signalized intersections around the city.  In addition, the system only functions in local traffic, and thus leaves unsolved congestion on freeway. However, it has shown to reduce travel time by around 12% (Sorensen & Rand Corporation, (2008).

Furthermore, according to data from the US Census Bureau, population in greater Los Angeles metropolitan area has increased by over 6 million since the 1980s, resulting in a rising number of vehicles on the roads (Rand Corporation, Rand Transportation Space & Technology Program, 2008). Due to its limited capability, ATSAC cannot reduce traffic delay effectively in response to more urgent issues nowadays.

Based on the negative circumstance of earlier attempts, there is a need for an immediate new intervention in order to mitigate current congestion situation. Recent research shows that tradable credit schemes could be a solution to traffic congestion in Los Angeles.

Tradable credit schemes were initially used in environmental field, specifically in relation to pollution control. A certain number of credits were allocated to each corporation, and it must pay credits to emit pollutants (Rand Corporation, Rand Transportation Space & Technology Program, 2008). If running out of credits, the corporation needs to buy extra from government or other corporations. Therefore, business owners are motivated to restrict pollution in exchange for monetary return.

A number of countries have launched tradable credit schemes to control pollution, and gained optimistic result. For example, in South Korea, greenhouse gas emissions are decreased by 30% with the help of emissions trading schemes.

The successful application of tradable credit schemes in the realm of environmental management. This aims to emulate revenue neutral and an integrated transport pricing with a  subsidy policy and puts into consideration travel delays. This has made experts hopeful that it could solve the traffic problem of Los Angeles city.

One of the studies by Grant-Muller and Xu (2014) explain that for the application of tradable credit schemes, commuters would be allotted tradable credits. The rates applied should differ in accordance to usage and rush hour timings (Grant & Xu, 2014). They researched on how tradable credit schemes can affect the trip and travel patterns in the travel system and they found out that the former could affect the mode choices of the travelers and a less effect as far as the overall trade patterns are concerned.

This system could help regulate traffic by ensuring that commuters avoid rush hours and take on certain routes via selective pricing mechanism (Grant & Xu, 2014). Moreover, some commuters might switch towards public transport in order to save on the cost of peak hours credits.

Travelers would consider their opportunity cost while choosing commuting routes and thus tradable credit schemes might prove to be an effective and sustainable way to tackle the congestion issue in Los Angeles.

Another upside of the tradable credit scheme would be the increase in revenue. On the one hand, government could profit from selling commuters credits. On the other hand, commuters could trade their spare credits in the market, and hence this would increase consumer surplus. Effective traffic control along with economic benefits seems like a tempting idea for the overall upgrading of the city of Los Angeles.

However, some obstacles and issues could come up with the implementation of tradable credit schemes for traffic regulation. Firstly, determining eligible commuters for the allocation of credits is the most crucial challenge in the implementation process. Secondly, political opposition might arise since it is likely that not everyone agree with the mechanism. Thirdly, initial implementation cost of the process might be a little high (Grant & Xu, 2014). Therefore, these barriers and issues will have to be smartly addressed by the authorities in order to implement tradable credit schemes in regulating traffic.

The implementation of such a scheme will be an infinitely advanced step from the previous efforts like road expansion which has not yielded the best results as expected. Therefore the chances of its success are great as well. If successfully employed, tradable credit schemes might just be the solution to solve the traffic congestion problem in Los Angeles. This scheme puts into consideration bottleneck congestion in a competitive transit with varied commuters distinguished by the value of travel time. It also charges auto travelers in form of mobility credits and reward those who travel outside the peak time with credits. Given the current dire situation, why not give this scheme a try.

Additionally, there are other ways that can help in reducing congestion in Los Angeles based on what is assumed are the causes of congestion itself. Research showed that congestion may be caused as a result of imbalance in the supply and the demand of roads. Therefore, in order to reduce the rate congestion, it is either necessary to increase the supply of roads or reduce the rate of peak hour auto travel.

Managing the roadways demand in peak hours may also serve as another way to reduce congestion in Los Angeles. Residents of Los Angeles are known to drive more miles per person as compared to other US metropolitan areas. Therefore this leads to a demand of more roadway than expected based on the population of the region. Thus managing the demand for driving in peak hours may solve the problem of congestion.

Pricing strategies may also help to a certain extent reduce on the level of congestion. Congestion pricing strategies which involve charging more for their higher usage of roadways during high travel demand. These may include allotting higher tolls for peak hour driving or charging highly those who park in the most convenient curb spaces during busier hours. This will make some drivers to change their travel patterns for fear of being charged and stop other from converging on a free capacity and as they do this, it reduces congestion to a certain level. Pricing strategies may help to offer additional benefit of generating revenue to support other investments needed in the transportation network. Raising transport revenue plays a big role in reducing the tax burden which could be imposed on the lower income earners (Richardson & Bae, 2008). This is also another way to tax the higher income earners since they are known of driving more than their counterparts the low income earners. Additionally they are more likely to drive in peak hours as compared to low income members. Therefore, pricing may enable efficient use of the road capacity by capturing revenues from such groups of people in addition to eliminating some who may opt to change their travel patterns while dodging the increased price on the road hence opening way to reduce congestion.

To reduce congestion in Los Angeles, small changes in driving can also help. It is possible to ensure a few cars are on the road at a given time (Richardson & Bae, 2008). Reducing the number of vehicles passing at a certain time even at a small amount can produce a higher reduction in congestion delays.

It is of great importance to strengthen the Congestion Management Program of Los Angeles. This program may help in monitoring highway and roadway systems of transportation, analysis of multi-modal systems, programs in transportation demand, and the land use analysis (Richardson & Bae, 2008). This program will be in position to address the basic causes of severe congestion and how they can work out to minimize it in most times of need.

References

Sorensen, P., & Rand Corporation. (2008). Moving Los Angeles: Short-term policy options for improving transportation. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corp.

Rand Corporation., & Rand Transportation, Space, and Technology (Program). (2008). Reducing traffic congestion in Los Angeles. Santa Monica, Calif: RAND.

Richardson, H. W., & Bae, C.-H. C. (2008). Road congestion pricing in Europe: Implications for the United States. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

Grant s. Muller, & Xu Meng (2014), The role of tradable schemes in Road traffic congestion,