Countries With the Highest Level of Traffic Congestion

Traffic Congestion happens all around the world, and it effects people and the vehicles let out pollution adding to a problem of air pollution. Some places have it worse than others. Traffic tends to be worse in developed countries as more people live there. The infrastructure is more developed, and more people work in the cities.

Mexico

Mexico has one of the worst traffic congestion problems in the world but Mexico City in particular has the worst traffic congestion in the world. In mega-cities like México City, more cars on the road brings greater traffic congestion, pollution and road safety challenges. Road traffic incidents were responsible for 954 deaths in Mexico City in 2012, while motorized vehicles are responsible for 49 percent of greenhouse gases emitted in the area, and these problems are poised to worsen as the city's vehicle ownership grows at 4.2 percent annually.

The people in Mexico City depend on the cars to much. Mexico City's Santa Fe district is a major commercial hub, with 118, 000 jobs offered. More than 850,000 are made in this district every day, 64 percent of this coming from business related transport, such as employees commuting to work, company visitors, and suppliers. This part of the city lacks access to high-capacity transit systems like subways and trains. These conditions result in 41 percent of business-related trips being conducted by cars, 46 percent in low quality business, 8 percent in corporate shuttles and 6 percent in taxis. Cars in the Santa Fe district are the largest contributors to traffic congestion and air pollution problems.

Santa Fe car congestion is also preventing economic growth. Businesses spend large sums of money on parking lots. Office buildings in Mexico City allocate on average 42 percent of their land to parking spaces to support employees current transport habits. Furthermore, the intense traffic congestion is impacting workers productivity, as all the time spent sitting in the car reduces workers abilities to concentrate, think critically or even be present on time in their office.

Employees are also personally deprived because of traffic. Someone who works in Santa Fe spends, 26 days a year travelling to and from work more time than all the annual holidays combined. The normal car user in Santa Fe spends more than $1,700 on petrol while in other parts of the city, a public transport user spent $900 on transport. For employees with the lowest salaries, transportation costs can eat up almost 20 percent of their income.

Severe traffic congestion has long tormented Mexico City’s 21 million inhabitants, but in recent months it has also turned the air toxic. So far this year, Mexico’s capital has had just 26 days with acceptable air quality levels, causing authorities to take drastic action, declaring environmental emergencies and ordering a million cars off the road. Authorities recently changed its rules for determining which cars can travel on a given days a programme known as or Don’t Drive Today and overhauled its emissions-testing system to root out corruption.

The traffic controls oblige drivers whose vehicles don’t meet emissions standards – around 20% of vehicles – to keep their cars off the road one day a week. The air pollution is staying and not going anywhere. Mexico City lies in a high-altitude lakebed and is surrounded by mountains – keeping pollution trapped overhead. Air quality in Mexico City had been improving over the past two decades, but no longer. A raft of public policy choices has made owning a car cheaper, easier and more necessary, according to analysts.

Public transport also has been neglected as the often-saturated subway system ages and fleets of uncomfortable microbuses and combis ply the streets. Incidents of sexual assault are staggeringly high on subway lines and buses, while the middle and upper classes – and anyone able to own a car – mostly stay away.

Australia

Traffic is slowing in Australia with major cities roads become more congested. With speeds in Adelaide the slowest and conditions in Melbourne getting worse. Sydney is still the most congested city when the speed is compared to other cities. The road leading towards the airport in Melbourne is the worst out of any other road leading towards an airport in the country. It is set to cost around $37.3 billion to upgrade the roads to help out the traffic congestion. In the five years leading up to June this year average speeds declined more in Melbourne than any other city. Dropping by 8.2 percent to make 59.9 kilometres per hour. Speeds in South Australia were just 54.3 kilometres per hour, while speeds in Sydney and Brisbane dropped.

Fixing the cities transport problems remains one of the biggest challenges facing people in Australia. Traffic congestion, transport emissions and booming urban populations are increasingly putting more pressure on governments budgets to deliver the infrastructure we need to meet our economic needs.

Traffic congestion delays economic growth. The cost of congestion in capital cities alone is around $16.5 billion in 2015, up from about $12.8 billion in 2010. The Bureau estimates the cost will increase if the current trends are not controlled and the most likely scenario is that it will turn into $30 billion by 2030 if nothing changes. Transport is also one of the major sources of emissions related to the combustion of fossil fuels in Australia. In 2010, transport contributed 83.2 or 15.3% of Australia’s net emissions with road transport accounting for 71.5 or 86% of national transport emissions. Passenger car usage in urban areas was the largest transport source, contributing 8.5% of Australia’s net emissions.

Netherlands

Traffic jams in the Netherlands increased sharply in the first three months of 2018. Traffic jam severity the length of the traffic jam multiplied by its duration increased by over 25 percent. This increase in traffic is because of more vehicles on the road and bad weather conditions. Rain and storms caused multiple traffic jams on Dutch roads in January. On January 18th for example, over 60 trucks toppled due to strong winds, closing multiple roads. March was also significantly busier than in recent years. This was due to a large number of serious accidents in which trucks were involved. The often-lengthy restrictions on traffic caused a lot of traffic problems. The busiest rush hour in the first quarter of this year happened on Tuesday evening, March 27th. Rain showers and accidents led to a lot of delays. At its peak, there was a total of 927 kilometres of traffic jams on Dutch highways. Traffic around Amsterdam remained about the same as last year. But the roads in Zuid-Holland, Gelderland and the southern provinces were significantly busier.

The growing Dutch economy means growing traffic jams in the Netherlands, and those jams cost billions of euros, traffic in the Netherlands will increase 1.7 percent next year, and 1.2 percent in the years after that. Travel time will increase by 28 percent over the next five years, costing up to 3.7 billion euros per year. These costs are caused by drivers and cargo traffic being stuck in traffic for longer, have to take a different route to avoid jams, or depart earlier for fear of getting stuck in traffic.

The new government plans to build up to 1,000 kilometres in extra roads until 2031. But that will not be enough to limit the damage. Up until 2022, there will not be enough improvements on highways to solve traffic problems.

Conclusion 

Due to the non-stop expand of traffic congestion in city areas, there is a want for similarly evaluation, development and implementation of site visitors manage systems. Traffic sign systems have been employed for centuries as a method of constantly managing traffic waft and saturation at intersections to allow smooth and protected motion amongst automobiles and different street users. Nevertheless some countries are suffering from huge level of traffic jams and this problem is getting bigger and bigger. 

Bibliography

• World Resources Institute. (2015). Mexico City’s Car Congestion Slows Economic Growth, Costs Businesses. [online] Available at: https://www.wri.org/blog/2015/04/mexico-city-s-car-congestion-slows-economic-growth-costs-businesses
• NL Times. (2018). Sharp increase in traffic jams in Netherlands. [online] Available at: https://nltimes.nl/2018/04/04/sharp-increase-traffic-jams-netherlands
• Agren, D. (2016). Mexico City chokes on its congestion problem. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/mexico-city-chokes-on-its-congestion-problem 
• ABC News. (2018). If you think the traffic is getting worse near you, here's the proof. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-15/traffic-congestion-australian-automobile-association-report/10376444
• Jones, T. and Jones, T. (2015). How To Fix Traffic Congestion In Australia. [online] Gizmodo Australia. Available at: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/12/how-to-fix-traffic-congestion-in-australia/
• NL Times. (2017). Netherlands traffic problems cost society billions of euros: Report. [online] Available at: https://nltimes.nl/2017/10/23/netherlands-traffic-problems-cost-society-billions-euros-report