sources

https://transportgeography.org/?page_id=247

https://www.scribd.com/document/233684009/Components-of-Transportation-System

http://www.geographynotes.com/articles/7-problems-of-urban-transport-explained-with-
diagram/185

While urban transport has had a tremendous liberating impact, it has also posed a very serious
problem to the urban impact in which it operates. Buchanan gave a warning in 1963 when he
wrote Traffic in Towns, that “the motor vehicle has been responsible for much that adversely
effects our physical surrounding.

There is its direct competition for space with environmental requirements, and it is greatest
where space is limited… the record is one of steady encroachment, often in small instalments,
but cumulative in effect. There are the visual consequences of this intrusion; the crowding out of
every available square yard of space with vehicles, either moving or stationary, so that buildings
seem to rise from a plinth of cars; the destruction of architectural scenes; visual effects from the
cutter of signs, signals, bollards, railings, etc., associated with the use of motor vehicles”.

1. Traffic Movement and Congestion:

Traffic congestion occurs when urban transport networks are no longer capable of
accommodating the volume of movements that use them. The location of congested areas is
determined by the physical transport framework and by the patterns of urban land use and their
associated trip-generating activities. Levels of traffic overloading vary in time, with a very well-
marked peak during the daily journey-to-work periods.

Although most congestion can be attributed to overloading, there are other aspects of this basic
problem that also require solutions. In the industrialised countries increasing volumes of private
car, public transport and commercial vehicle traffic have exposed the inadequacies of urban
roads, especially in older city centres where street patterns have survived largely unaltered from
the nineteenth century and earlier.

The intricate nature of these centres makes motorised movements difficult and long-term car
parking almost impossible. In developing countries the problem is particularly acute: Indian and
South-East Asian cities often have cores composed of a mesh of narrow streets often accessible
only to non-motorised traffic.
The rapid growth in private car ownership and use in western cities in the period since 1950 has
rarely been accompanied by a corresponding upgrading of the road network, and these increases
will probably continue into the twenty-first century, further exacerbating the problem. In less-
developed countries car ownership in urban areas is in at a much lower level but there is
evidence of an increased rate in recent decades, especially in South America and South-East Asia
(Rimmer, 1977).

Satisfactory definitions of the saturation level of car ownership vary but if a ratio of 50 cars to
100 persons is taken then in several US cities the figure is now over 80 per 100, whereas in
South-East Asian cities the level rarely exceeds 10 per 100. One factor contributing to
congestion in developing world cities is the uncontrolled intermixing of motorised and animal-or
human-drawn vehicles. The proliferation of pedal and motorcycles causes particular difficulties
(Simon 1996).

2. Public Transport Crowding:

The ‘person congestion’ occurring inside public transport vehicles at such peak times adds insult
to injury, sometimes literally. A very high proportion of the day’s journeys are made under
conditions of peak-hour loading, during which there will be lengthy queues at stops, crowding at
terminals, stairways and ticket offices, and excessively long periods of hot and claustrophobic
travel jammed in overcrowded vehicles.

In Japan, ‘packers’ are employed on station platforms to ensure that passengers are forced inside
the metro trains so that the automatic doors can close properly. Throughout the world, conditions
are difficult on good days, intolerable on bad ones and in some cities in developing countries
almost unbelievable every day. Images of passengers hanging on to the outside of trains in India
are familiar enough. Quite what conditions are like inside can only be guessed at?

3. Off-Peak Inadequacy of Public Transport:

If public transport operators provide sufficient vehicles to meet peak-hour demand there will be
insufficient patronage off-peak to keep them economically employed. If on the other hand they
tailor fleet size to the off-peak demand, the vehicles would be so overwhelmed during the peak
that the service would most likely break down.

This disparity of vehicle use is the hub of the urban transport problem for public transport
operators. Many now have to maintain sufficient vehicles, plant and labour merely to provide a
peak-hour service, which is a hopelessly uneconomic use of resources. Often the only way of
cutting costs is by reducing off-peak services, but this in turn drives away remaining patronage
and encourages further car use. This ‘off-peak problem’ does not, however, afflict operators in
developing countries. There, rapidly growing urban populations with low car ownership levels
provide sufficient off-peak demand to keep vehicle occupancy rates high throughout the day.

4. Difficulties for Pedestrians:

Pedestrians form the largest category of traffic accident victims. Attempts to increase their safety
have usually failed to deal with the source of the problem (i.e., traffic speed and volume) and
instead have concentrated on restricting movement on foot. Needless to say this worsens the
pedestrian’s environment, making large areas ‘off-limits’ and forcing walkers to use footbridges
and underpasses, which are inadequately cleaned or policed. Additionally there is obstruction by
parked cars and the increasing pollution of the urban environment, with traffic noise and exhaust
fumes affecting most directly those on feet.

At a larger scale, there is the problem of access to facilities and activities in the city. The
replacement of small-scale and localised facilities such as shops and clinics by large-scale super-
stores and hospitals serving larger catchment areas has put many urban activities beyond the
reach of the pedestrian. These greater distances between residences and needed facilities can
only be covered by those with motorised transport. Whereas the lack of safe facilities may be the
biggest problem for the walker in developing countries, in advanced countries it is the growing
inability to reach ‘anything’ on foot, irrespective of the quality of the walking environment.

5. Parking Difficulties:
Many car drivers stuck in city traffic jams are not actually trying to go anywhere: they are just
looking for a place to park. For them the parking problem is the urban transport problem: earning
enough to buy a car is one thing but being smart enough to find somewhere to park it is quite
another. However, it is not just the motorist that suffers. Cities are disfigured by ugly multi-
storey parking garages and cityscapes are turned into seas of metal, as vehicles are crammed on
to every square metre of ground.

Public transport is slowed by clogged streets and movement on foot in anything like a straight
line becomes impossible. The provision of adequate car parking space within or on the margins
of central business districts (CBDs) for city workers and shoppers is a problem that has serious
implications for land use planning.

A proliferation of costly and visually intrusive multi-storey car-parks can only provide a partial
solution and supplementary on-street parking often compound road congestion. The extension of
pedestrian precincts and retail malls in city centres is intended to provide more acceptable
environments for shoppers and other users of city centres. However, such traffic-free zones in
turn produce problems as they create new patterns of access to commercial centres for car-borne
travellers and users of public transport, while the latter often lose their former advantage of being
conveyed directly to the central shopping area.

6. Environmental Impact:
The operation of motor vehicles is a polluting activity. While there are innumerable other
activities which cause environmental pollution as a result of the tremendous increases in vehicle
ownership, society is only now beginning to appreciate the devastating and dangerous
consequences of motor vehicle usage. Pollution is not the only issue.

Traffic noise is a serious problem in the central area of our towns and cities and there are other
environmental drawbacks brought about through trying to accommodate increasing traffic
volumes. The vast divergence between private and social costs is one, which has so far been
allowed to continue without any real check. Perhaps more disturbing is that society is largely
unaware of the longer-term effects of such action, and while the motorcar is by no means the
only culprit, it is a persistently obvious offender.

Traffic Noise:
It is generally recognised that traffic noise is the major environment problem caused by traffic in
urban areas. Noise became a pressing problem late in the 1950s and in 1960 the Government set
up a committee to look into the whole issue. This committee, headed by Sir Alan Wilson,
pointed out with reference to London that traffic noise “is the predominant source of annoyance
and no other single noise is of comparable importance”.

Traffic noise is both annoying and disturbing. Walking and other activities in urban areas can be
harassing and, perhaps more important, traffic noise penetrates through to the interior of
buildings. Working is therefore more difficult since noise disturbs concentration and
conversation. High noise levels can also disturb domestic life as sleeping and relaxation become
affected.

Traffic noise tends to be a continuous sound, which is unwanted by the hearer. It is caused as a
result of fluctuations in air pressure, which are then picked up by the human ear. Whilst other
noise phenomena such as aircraft noise and vibrations from a road drill produce a more intense
sound, traffic noise is a much more continuous and an almost round-the-clock discomfort. Noise
is usually measured on a weighted scale in decibel units, an increase of 10 dB corresponding to a
doubling of loudness.
The Wilson Committee published studies, which showed that a decibel noise level of 84 dB was
much as people found acceptable and they proposed legislation which would make any engine
noise more than 85 dB, illegal. They proposed that there should be a progressive reduction in
acceptable limits, but this has not been achieved. In fact, heavy lorries produce a noise level still
well in excess of the above acceptable level.

The noise from motor vehicles comes from various sources. The engine, exhaust and tyres are
the most important ones but with goods vehicles, additional noise can be given off by the body,
brakes, loose fittings and aerodynamic noise. The level of noise is also influenced by the speed
of the vehicle, the density of the traffic flow and the nature of the road surface on which the
vehicle is operating.

Vehicles, which are accelerating or travelling on an uphill surface, produce more noise than
those moving in a regular flow on an even road. The regulations now in force lay down the limits
of 84 dB for cars and 89 dB for Lorries. Buses, particularly when stopping and starting, motor-
cycles and sports cars as well as goods vehicles produce higher noise levels than the average
private car.

7. Atmospheric Pollution:
Fumes from motor vehicles present one of the most unpleasant costs of living with the motor
vehicle. The car is just one of many sources of atmospheric pollution and although prolonged
exposure may constitute a health hazard, it is important to view this particular problem in
perspective. As the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has stated, “there is no firm
evidence that in Britain the present level of these pollutants is a hazard to health”.

Traffic fumes, especially from poorly maintained diesel engines, can be very offensive and
added to noise contribute to the unpleasantness of walking in urban areas. No urban street is free
from the effects of engine fumes and these almost certainly contribute towards the formation of
smog. As traffic volumes increase, however, atmospheric pollution will also increase. In the
United States, with its much higher levels of vehicle ownership, there is mounting concern over
the effects of vehicle fumes. In large cities such as Mexico City, Los Angeles, New York and
Tokyo, fumes are responsible for the creation of very unpleasant smog.

Ecologists believe that the rapid increase in the number of vehicles on our roads which has taken
place without (as yet) any real restriction is fast developing into an environmental crisis. Exhaust
fumes are the major source of atmospheric pollution by the motor vehicle.
The fumes, which are emitted, contain four main types of pollutant:
(i) Carbon monoxide:
This is a poisonous gas caused as a result of incomplete combustion;

(ii) Unburnt hydrocarbons:

This caused by the evaporation of petrol and the discharge of only partially burnt hydrocarbons;

(iii) Other gases and deposits:

Nitrogen oxides, tetra-ethyl lead and carbon dust particles;

(iv) Aldehydes:
Organic compounds containing the group CHO in their structures.

Hydrocarbon fumes are also emitted from the carburettor and petrol tanks, as well as from the
exhaust system.

Fears of urban pollution by motor vehicles, are greater in the United States and Japan. In day-
time Manhattan, for example, readings of pollutants of 25-30 parts per million have been
recorded – exposure has the same effect as smoking two packets of cigarettes per day. USA has
imposed certain restrictions on vehicle manufacturers and more stringent levels are proposed, but
as in the earlier case of traffic noise, increasing vehicle ownership levels are liable to offset some
of the benefits which accrue.

Other Environmental Problems:

Traffic presents many other implications for the urban environment. Some of these issues will be
outlined in this final section. It should, however, be stated that individual opinions often
determine what constitutes an environmental problem. The British Transport Federation, for
example, regard visual impact as one of the most important local environmental factors to be
taken into consideration in the design and planning of urban motorways.

They state that “visual problems…are a result of the fundamental conflict in scale and form
between a vast linear motorway and the smaller scale and tightly knit pattern of streets and
buildings in the adjoining areas”. Elevated motorways are particularly conspicuous when they
are closely aligned to houses, shops and other small buildings, which are dwarfed in contrast.

This problem is most sensitive in relation to houses since views of motorway traffic can be a
constant distraction and coupled with traffic noise serve as a round-the-clock reminder of the
motorway’s presence. The loss of privacy is just one part of this problem. Elevated motorways
can also obstruct daylight and sunlight entering nearby houses and recreation or shopping areas.

Buchanan raises other visual issues: “the intrusion into parks and squares; the garaging, servicing
and maintenance of cars in residential streets…; the clutter of signs, signals, bollards, railings
and the rest of the paraphernalia which is deemed necessary to help the traffic flow; the dreary,
formless car parks, often absorbing large areas of towns and whose construction have involved
the sacrifice of the closely knit development which has contributed so much to the character of
the inner areas of our towns”. These are just some of the added consequences of our living with
the motor vehicle and due to the uneasy partnership which exists the relationship produces its
own form of blight within the urban environment.