Let’s start facing up to the new facts of urban life. After death
and taxes, there is one more thing most of us won’t be able to
avoid: traffic. There may be some who work funny hours, and enjoy
empty roads. Some small-city commuters drive five minutes from door
to door and a small minority still live somewhere without
subdivisions or a nearby Tim Hortons. A lucky few commute in the
opposite direction of everyone else -- like from a downtown condo to
the suburban industrial park -- but that congestion-free window is
closing too.
Like the rest of
the planet’s upstanding citizens, most of us can say that we are
urbanites, we commute, and there are more of us than there is road.
Loony gas prices won’t stop this -- just check with those Europeans
who pay four bucks a litre for fuel. Until public transit system can
be made to work in suburbia -- which is harder than putting solar
panels on a Smart car -- the majority will continue to pilot
themselves to work for the next few decades or so.
Acceptance will
be our greatest tool in dealing with gridlock and its frustrations,
and is a wiser remedy than placing our hopes in the jack-hammer or
steamroller. Even cities that direct great financial focus on
building roads can’t keep up with steadily increasing traffic
volume. Most Canadian burgs, and many U.S. ones, have fallen behind
the congestion curve. Some jurisdictions -- especially in the east
-- are facing the choice between building additional lanes or
watching their oldest bridges and highways crumble.
For every
Calgary, Edmonton or Phoenix, there are dozens of cities where few
new roads are being built and drivers can expect their commutes to
lengthen instead of shrink. We will just have to get smarter as
individuals, and as a people. Observing media coverage of road rage,
the blame is often directed at gridlock, and by extension, the
officials who caused it by not paving enough. Since there are no
cities that have yet been able to unlock their grids, perhaps it
would be better to focus on our anger mismanagement.
Call it by any
name, but “intelligent transportation” is the next genuine frontier
in congestion relief. Urban bottlenecks and choke-points are the
first to be outfitted, and eventually more of us will encounter ramp
meters (stoplights on freeway entrance ramps), changeable message
boards, and perhaps even variable speed limit signs. Cameras and
sensors will allow road officials to monitor, and even direct
motorists away from slowdowns.
Getting that
information out to drivers will require will and money. Canadian
traffic departments seem to be far behind their U.S. colleagues in
providing the latest in traffic aids: the ‘511’ phone number. It
seems a city a week is launching 511, with real-time updates on road
clogs, collisions and other useful tips. American drivers can also
avoid slow routes by tuning in to the growing array of new private
traffic information sources -- via every form of communication
medium there is.
As individuals,
we can turn inward and examine our driving habits, to see how we
unconsciously promote gridlock. Like lemmings, too many perform the
speed-up-and-brake routine during highway jam-ups, even though it
perpetuates the problem. Few drivers know how to personally aid
traffic flow by smoothing their speed during delays. It requires
advanced driving skills to lay off the brake in heavy traffic, even
if it means occasionally leaving a space in front of our vehicle.
Modern motorists can help by brushing up on their lane etiquette,
such as not making frequent lane changes, hogging the passing lane
or otherwise driving on auto-pilot.
Ed Drass
Email the
Traffic Guru at edrass@nationalpost.com