Session Date: August 17, 2005

Annual Meeting Session Summary: Solving Traffic Congestion

By Guy Bergstrom
Communications Officer, Washington House Democratic Caucus

This summary is provided for information purposes only. NCSL does not endorse any views it contains.

SEATTLE – How can state and local governments unclog traffic?

At one of the 150 policy sessions taking place at the National Conference of State Legislatures' 2005 Annual Meeting, two transportation experts briefed lawmakers from around the nation on cutting-edge methods to speed up traffic.

“Transportation is everything,” said David Schrank of the Texas Transportation Institute. “If you don’t have it, everything shuts down.”

Schrank explained how transportation has changed over the decades. From the ‘50s to the ‘70s, the nation focused on building roads and highways, he said. During the 1980s, we tried to manage the demand for transportation; and from the ‘90s to today, we’re managing the system and improving operations.

“We still need to build roads,” said Schrank, “but you have to do other stuff, too.”

He explained that the “other stuff” that got little attention before can now give states the biggest bang for their buck.

Ramp meters and response teams – trucks that respond to crashes, break-downs and people running out of gas – are proven to save huge amounts of time, Schrank said. Response teams can reduce congestion 15 to 35 percent. Traffic could be reduced a great deal more if these were adopted nationwide, he said.

Another way to speed up traffic is improving signals so they’re more responsive to traffic. This would result in a 1 to 2 percent reduction in congestion. If they're linked to other nearby traffic lights to work as a unit, this would reduce congestion by 3 to 6 percent. Better traffic lights don’t yield as dramatic time savings as ramp meters or response teams, but people sit at the lights every day, Schrank said, and they notice the improvement.

Schrank also said it’s important not only to use the right solutions to traffic, but to know how to talk about it to the public and to use quantifiable measures to chart improvement.

It doesn’t work to talk about miles, numbers and theoretical models, Schrank said. Instead, use real data, such as the hours lost to congestion per driver. Use pictures, maps and graphs. It’s really boils down to “What’s the problem?” and “How do we solve it?”

Gummada Murthy, director of operations and maintenance for the Washington state department of transportation, had a similar message.

“You have to deal with the system as a whole,” said Murthy.

In Seattle, congestion is caused by 50 percent lack of capacity, Murthy said, and 50 percent short-term problems: weather, traffic incidents, special events such as a Mariner’s game and construction zones.

Murthy said it’s critical for different teams to work together and plan ahead. Congestion management must work with planning, construction and public information.

So what can we do to reduce congestion? Murthy said the toolbox includes:

• minimizing crashes and other traffic incidents;
• quickly responding to incidents;
• minimizing hazardous road conditions due to weather problems;
• managing traffic in construction zones and during special events;
• providing traffic information and warnings; and
• maximizing the system capacity through managed lane approaches.

Murthy said technology is a boon to drivers, who can now get traffic information from the web, radio stations, live highway cameras, variable message highway signs, state highway radio beacons or by dialing 511.

A few years from now, he said, technology will take another leap with new cars will have black boxes with VII (vehicle infrastructure integration), giving drivers instant traffic updates and helping traffic managers track cars in real time.

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