The Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation

Federal State Educational Establishment higher education

“Perm National Research Polytechnic University”

Synthesis

“Russian roads”

Written by

Kostarev A.I., student of group GPUD-14-1m

Checked by

Radosteva V.S., lecture of PNRPU

Perm, 2014

Contents

1. Annotation

2. Essay

3. Article 1 (http://www.vox.com/2014/10/23/6994159/traffic-roads-induced-demand)

4. Article 2 (http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140611-can-we-ever-end-traffic-jams)

5. Glossary 1

6. Glossary 2

The problem of road building is vital and relevant nowadays as far as more and more cities are suffering from the traffic congestion. The essay is based on two articles devoted to the problem of traffic jams, causes of them, ideas to solve this problem. The authors of the articles have different opinions about the methods of solving the it, although they agree that building more roads does not reduce the traffic congestion. The essay describes the problem on the whole, presents ideas from both articles and also includes the conclusion about the situation in Russia.

The problem of road building has been very significant and important since there was the car boom in 1960s. This vital question is tightly connected with the problem of the traffic congestion in big cities. Traffic jams disturb the majority of the population of the world`s biggest cities such as Moscow, London, New York and so on. Moreover, the number of smaller cities suffering from the traffic congestion is growing every year. It seems like there is a volume problem. Too many cars trying to use not enough road. Basically most people suppose that the best way to reduce the congestion on the roads is to build more roads and it sounds very reasonable. Apparently this is not the key to such relevant problem as many researches show.

There is the "fundamental rule" of traffic created by Gilles Duranton, the economist of Pennsylvania University. Building new roads just makes people drive more. This conclusion is based on the set of evidences and analyses. Actually, adding road capacity induces people to drive more than they would have driven without new roads. The author of the first article gives many reasons for such phenomenon and describes the proving examples that show the evidence of Duranton`s “fundamental rule”. The understandable explanation was invented in 2011 by Turner and Duranton. They have compared the total capacity of highways in each big city in the USA with the total number of the vehicle miles driven. They have concluded that the more capacity the roads had, the more miles the vehicles traveled on them. People themselves choose to drive more. It is explained by their driving decisions. The author insists on the opinion that people are likely to use more and more of those things that are free of charge. This is what scientists call induced demand. So the author sees the solution of the problem in making people pay for the roads, or at least in charging money for the most congested roads during the rush hours.

However, there are alternative ideas, how to reduce the traffic jams in big cities, presented in another article “Can a city ever be traffic jam-free?” published on the official BBC site. Furthermore, it gives relevant reasons, why it is important to reduce the traffic congestion. Nevertheless the first and the best thing to do is to understand what actually causes the congestion. According to the article the causes of traffic jams can be very different. They can appear spontaneously or be the consequence of a deviant behavior of some drivers on the road. Also the statistics shows that many people are stuck in the traffic jam because they cannot find a parking place. The author of the second article supports the idea that providing places for parking and informing people about free parking places is one of the most effective solutions to the problem of huge traffic jams. It is proved by the example about Moscow. The smart parking system was introduced there two years ago that informs drivers about the availability to park in the city. As a result the number of traffic jams has gone down. So the author believes in high technologies to struggle with the traffic congestion.

What about the Russia on the whole though? I agree with the solutions presented in both articles. Most of them are likely to reduce the congestion, but the result might depend on many circumstances. To my mind there are still some ideas that have not been tested in our cities yet. For example, today more and more people are becoming drivers right after they get the driving license, at the age of 18. So there are more and more cars on the roads with unexperienced drivers though. That is why I believe that rising taxes on buying cars and rising the payment for the insurance will have a great effect. There are bright examples of Singapore and Shanghai that almost have no traffic jams because of the very high taxes. Also there are cities where you are allowed to drive your car only on special days, usually it depends on the day of week and your car number (even or odd). Moreover many traffic jams in our city are caused by the quality of roads and unseasonable repair works on it. If the repair works took place while good weather conditions, in summer, the quality of road would be better and that will affect the situation on the roads.

To sum it up, I can say that during the past years many possible solutions to the problem of traffic congestion have been invented and, unfortunately, the common idea about building more roads does not work. However, in different cities different methods had a success. That is why, to my mind, it is important to take into account the special features of the area while choosing a strategy to struggle with the bad traffic.