City traffic and congestion is an issue that’s only getting worse. Even with the presence of public transportation systems, vehicles remain necessary, and in many cases, a city’s infrastructure just can’t keep up with the volume of vehicles. If you’ve ever tried to travel through a city during rush hour, you know the frustration of city traffic and congestion.
How do we solve this issue? It will take some significant changes, but from our recent pitches at SXSW in Austin and at the Urban Future Lab competition in New York, it became clear, that many are working on helping to improve congestion and traffic… let’s have a look:
Ride-sharing and Ride ride-hailing apps
Ride-sharing and ride-hailing apps came with the promise to help reduce congestion and traffic in cities. Though ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft provide an alternative transportation option for city-goers, they often ADD cars to the road. In New York City alone, an estimated 100,000 cars were added to the roads via these new services, as oftentimes residents use them INSTEAD of public transportation.
The good news? Companies like Gridwise (a fellow Techstar mobility company) are building platforms that help rideshare drivers better manage their business and decrease the time waiting (and circling) for passengers. Commutifi, our fellow SXSW accelerator company is optimizing mobility for commuters, enterprises, and business districts. The company captures holistic commuting data and generates recommendations while measuring time, cost, and carbon efficiencies.
Implementing Adaptive Traffic Signals
If you’ve ever sat in traffic watching the light turn green, then red, then green, then red without ever being able to move because of gridlock, then you know how impractical traffic signals can be at times. Traffic signals, particularly those that aren’t properly adjusted to traffic conditions, contribute to city congestion. Traffic signals can cause and worsen gridlock, but implementing adaptive traffic signals can improve the issue.
Adaptive traffic signals could be adjusted to the congestion of a particular intersection. Their patterns and the duration of each signal could be altered for a more optimal performance, so gridlock isn’t such a headache and more vehicles are able to navigate the intersection with a minimal wait time.
Drones to the Rescue?
Could using drones to deliver products within cities help to cut down on traffic congestion? Possibly. According to a study conducted by the RAND Corporation, there could be several benefits to turning to drones for deliveries. The study states that it would take 100 drones to approach a volume that’s comparable to city traffic, making for a quieter delivery option. And with companies like Amazon, the United Parcel Service, DHL, and even Google testing out drone delivery, it’s likely that we’ll see this technology in cities sooner rather than later.
New Zealand Transport Minister Simon Bridges views drone deliveries as a potential solution to Auckland’s congested traffic. Bridges noted that drones meant fewer delivery trucks and fewer drivers on the road. He included the idea in his 30-year transport plan for Auckland. But likely not an immediate fit.
Carpooling
Perhaps the most effective way to reduce city traffic congestion is also one of the simplest solutions: Carpool! Carpooling reduces the number of vehicles on the road, which helps to reduce traffic issues. It also has the benefits of reducing emissions and wear and tear on city streets. Many urban areas allow vehicles with multiple passengers to use high-occupancy vehicle lanes, which are typically less congested, further improving the fuel economy.
Often overlooked is the fact that not only commuting to work via tools like Scoop will ease traffic, but parents are causing up to a third of the morning rush hour traffic. Our mission here at GoKid is to change this pattern.
Thanks to GoKid, setting up carpools for kids is easy. GoKid allows you to easily schedule carpools with other parents, so you all split the driving and can get kids to and from sports events, afterschool activities, and even summer camps. Carpooling doesn’t just make your life easier and saves you thousands of hours, but you’ll be helping to reduce traffic, too.
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Looking to the Future
Will these options be the solution to traffic congestion in cities? Will other solutions emerge? In order to keep cities functional, we do need to overcome the increasing traffic problem. We are hopeful and delighted to see Statewide initiatives to reduce traffic by agencies like NYSERDA and millennials who adopt bike sharing and carpooling into their daily transportation mix. It will be interesting to see which methods cities use in the years to come.
