Traffic Congestion In Los Angeles

994 Words2 Pages

Los Angeles is the most traffic-congested city in the United States; ahead of San Francisco, Washington D.C., New York and Boston. In 2014, the United States had an overall congestion level of 39%, which is much higher than the average congestion level of 30%, in the ten worst traffic-congested cities in the country. This congestion level in Los Angeles is so detrimental that it causes motorists to waste an average extra 92 hours a year sitting in traffic. Considering the value of not only wasted time but fuel too, the Texas Transportation Institute estimates the annual cost of traffic congestion in greater Los Angeles is close to $10 Billion. Thus, traffic congestion not only causes wasted time but there are monetary costs that accompany …show more content…

A solution for this problem would be to introduce more high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, and/or high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. These lanes share some very similar concepts but HOV lanes are designated for vehicles carrying two passengers or more; while HOT lanes can be used by both high-occupancy vehicles and single-occupancy vehicles with a toll during peak hours. Another congestion solution would be improving public transit services in Los Angeles. This solution would consist of creating a better bus; and possibly subway system, to connect downtown Los Angeles, with its densely populated suburbs. The traffic congestion in Los Angeles could also be lessened with smaller policy changes, such as bus lanes, local gas taxes and other small policy changes. Despite the issue seeming like it has an obvious solution, widening the roads or building new highways would not help the traffic problem. In the long run, it will increase traffic and, thus, make traffic worse. Therefore, the traffic congestion problem in Los Angeles can be reduced by introducing HOV, HOT and bus lanes, by improving public transportation infrastructure, and implementing other small policy changes; but widen the highways or building new ones will not help to solve the …show more content…

Such means would allow more people to take public transportation to work and thus take those cars off the road. The result would have a great impact in Los Angeles because less than six percent of commuters use public transit, compared to the twenty-five percent of commuters that use public transit in New York, and the twelve percent that do in Chicago. Downtown Los Angeles is less condensed than New York and Chicago but the suburbs surrounding Los Angeles are much denser than the typical suburbs. In other words, there are more people that need to travel farther in Los Angeles compared to other cities. A solution to said problem would be to improve the bus routes to the suburbs of Los Angeles and extend the subway system there too; if the benefits of construction outweigh the costs. Therefore, improved public transit would hopefully keep Los Angeles commuters off the roads, by providing them with an alternative option to travel into the city and around the

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