Urban transport:
The public vs private debate
LO: Explain the management of
transport in urban areas, including
the public versus private debate
http://www.geographyalltheway.com/in/gcsesettlement/traffic_congestion.htm
Describe the pattern shown on this
graph (4), p 46
Traffic Facts and Figures from the USA
What it Costs
• America's families spend more than 19 cents out of every dollar earned on transportation, an
expense second only to housing, and greater than food and health care combined.
• The individual cost of congestion exceeded $900 per driver in 1997, resulting in more than $72 billion
in lost wages and wasted fuel.
Lost Time
• Congestion results in 5.7 billion person-hours of delay annually in the United States.
• Drivers in one-third of U.S. cities spend more than 40 hours a year (an entire work week) in traffic
that is not moving.
Safety and Health Concerns
• In 2003 there were more than 6.3 million motor vehicle crashes reported to police. Of those, 38,252
crashes resulted in fatalities.
• In 2001, crashes were the leading cause of death for people ages 4-33 in the United States.
Public Transportation
• For every passenger-mile traveled, public transportation is twice as fuel-efficient as private
automobiles, sport utility vehicles and light trucks. (Source: Centre for Transportation Excellence)
• If one in 10 Americans regularly used mass transit, U.S. reliance on foreign oil could decline by more
than 40 percent, or nearly the amount of oil imported from Saudi Arabia each year.
The Environment
• A regular rush-hour driver wastes an average of 99 gallons of gasoline a year due to traffic.
• On-road vehicles are responsible for 44 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the United States,
one-third of all nitrogen oxide emissions and one-quarter of all volatile organic compound emissions.
Solutions to traffic problems
Rising Bollards
• http://www.geographyalltheway.com/in/gcsesettlement/traffic_management.htm
Car wrecked by pop-up bollards
Imagine you work for the complaints
department at Manchester City Council.
How would you explain to the driver of a
car that has been damaged by raising
bollards why the bollards had been
installed in the CBD (Central Business
District)?
Park and Ride Schemes
• What are 'Park and Ride
Schemes'?
• How do they work?
• How do they reduce
urban traffic
congestion?
Alternative Transport Initiatives
Use news article 'A year on,
the cycle experiment has hit
some bumps' and then with
three different colours
highlight the following:
• How the bicycle scheme in
Paris works?
• Any negative elements to
the scheme in Paris.
• Any positive elements to
the scheme in Paris.
Remember to add a key to the
document to show what the
different colours mean.
London’s Congestion Charging
Scheme – A Case Study of Urban
Congestion Management
London’s Congestion Charging
Scheme – A Case Study of Urban
Congestion Management
Produce a detailed case study of the Congestion
Charges scheme in London, UK. By producing your
case study you should develop your understanding
of the following:
1. How the scheme actually works – how is money
collected?, how are cars monitored?
2. The geographical scale of the scheme.
3. The successes of the scheme.
4. Who is for and against the scheme and why?
5. Any negative impacts about the scheme.
6. The future of the scheme.
http://www.geographyalltheway.com/in/gcsesettlement/traffic_management.htm
Case study Houston
1. What is the current situation like in
Houston?- why is it like this?
2. What has been or could be done in Houston
to make the traffic more sustainable?
Review
• Watch this video clip about how New York is
learning to combat traffic congestion from
London, Paris and Copenhagen.
http://www.geographyalltheway.com/in/gcsesettlement/traffic_management.htm