Name: Traffic Congestion, Part One: Sources and Responses
Author: Michael Manville

Course Info

8 video lessons (68 Mins)
Published
2022
4.49

Preview Course

Browse Course Chapters

1.

Introduction

3 mins
2.

What is Congestion?

18 mins
3.

An Economic Perspective

9 mins
4.

Congestion Damages, Part I

9 mins
5.

Congestion Damages, Part II

11 mins
6.

Fighting Congestion and Losing: Adding Capacity

9 mins
7.

Fighting Congestion and Losing: Limiting Capacity

5 mins
8.

Conclusion

1 min

What You Will Learn

Understand the sources of traffic congestion, from both an economic and an engineering perspective
Gain a holistic understanding of congestion’s costs.
Learn the strengths and (especially) shortcomings of common ways to fight traffic congestion.
Learn about the common preconceptions that inform the way we try to fight congestion.
Understand the damage congestion creates.
Understand where congestion comes from and why conventional approaches to reduce it don't work.

Course Description

Traffic congestion is an omnipresent topic in planning. Congestion is mentioned and analyzed in the evaluation of virtually every development proposal; long term regional plans are built around projections of congestion and ideas about how to reduce it; and congestion, for better or worse, is the single-largest concern in transportation planning. Congestion is also greatly misunderstood, in both its causes and its effects.

The "Traffic Congestion, Part One" course considers congestion’s causes and impacts and, in light of these, discusses attempts to fight congestion by building roads, building transit, and using land use regulation and Transportation Demand Management (TDM).

Watch Traffic Congestion, Part Two: Congestion Pricing.