7 Problems of Urban Transport

(Explained With Diagram)

By Raghav

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”.

Michael Thomson’s classic book Great Cities and Their Traffic (1977)
provides a useful breakdown of the ways in which most people are
dissatisfied with the transport systems of their cities. He has given seven
problems of urban transport, interrelated with each other as shown in
Figure 5.2.
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 motor-
cycles 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 superstores 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.

The Royal Commission provides some interesting statistics on the extent

of air pollution. In 1970 an estimated 6 million tonnes of carbon
monoxide were emitted into the atmosphere. If estimates of vehicle
ownership are correct, then by the year 2010, this volume would increase
to 14 million tonnes. This figure, however, assumes the current state of
engine and fuel technology. A further and more detailed estimate of
emissions is given by Sharp in Table 5.3.

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.

Home ››

Welcome to GeographyNotes! Our mission is to provide an online platform to help students to share
notes in Geography. This website includes study notes, research papers, essays, articles and other
allied information submitted by visitors like YOU.

Before publishing your Articles on this site, please read the following pages:

1. Content Guidelines
2. Privacy Policy
3. TOS
4. Disclaimer Copyright
 Publish Your Article

ABOUT US

 Publish Your Notes

 Content Guidelines
 ToS
 Privacy Policy
 Disclaimer

SUGGESTIONS

 Report Spelling and Grammatical Errors

 Suggest Us

Copyright © 2016 Geographynotes.com, All rights reserved.