Essay Sustainability of the Intersection in Ontario, Canada

The town of Halton Hill’s population includes the areas of Georgetown and Acton and other communities such as Erin, Oakville, Burlington and Milton regions. This is what is considered to be my community because these are the many places that I am visiting most often and they are always referred to together as “Halton Hills Region” (p.5, 2011). With the substantial increase in population in the Halton Hills region, more specifically Georgetown, there should be a strong demand for a public transit system to counteract all of the environmental disturbances that are being caused due to this increase. One of the things that is happening is that there are so many trees they are cutting down in order to expand and grow the population with houses being built. Statistics are showing that the population of Halton Hill’s region will expand by 54% over the next 20 years (p.5, 2011). By the year 2031, employment rates will increase by 75%, leaving Halton with 42,100 jobs being offered (p.5, 2011). With this rapid influx of citizens, this will only increase the demands of travel to get to these work places as well as other destinations (p.5, 2011). Over the past couple of year’s the traffic congestion on the major roads in Halton Hills such as Trafalgar Road and Regional Road 25 with individuals trying to get to and from work. There used to be very little traffic in these areas, however since Halton Hill’s has continued to expand, the utilization of automobiles has significantly increased due to the fact there is no public transit system. The Transportation Demand Management in Halton Hill’s is noticing the increase in automobiles stating that there needs to be a major shift in more efficient ways of transportation, yet there still has been nothing improvised (p.7, 2011). The Transportation Demand

Traffic in downtown Austin, Texas is becoming a sever issue and is continuing to become slower and more congested every day. Austin ranks 4th on a list of U.S. cities with the least efficient roadways, and with its remarkable growth rate, the issue can only get worse. After reading numerous articles based on opinions and statements from local city planners and engineers, the best way to see an improvement in the traffic issue is to increase the amount of public transportation in the Austin area. The increase of public transportation would provide fast travel time and would help reduce the amount of money, commuters and locals use on gas by a substantial amount per year. Though many may argue the that we have enough public transportation already, reducing the number of personal vehicles on the road would decrease the amount of bumper to bumper traffic experienced on a daily basis, as well as increase the options for those commuting to the city every day. there are many possible solutions, such as widening the highways or even building them underground, these solutions however are not the most economically correct and productive way to relieve traffic downtown.

Being the fourth largest metropolitan city in the United States and the largest city of Texas, Houston is subject to a mighty amount of traffic that affects its roadways. As one would suspect, these roadways are constantly deteriorating due to this severe usage, but this problem isn’t being addressed proportionately. The Houstonians need improvements made towards roadways now to decrease traffic, provide an environment that is more safe, and reduce the above average financial costs to operate their vehicles in Houston compared to other cities in the United States.

Austin, Texas has a problem with traffic congestion. The solutions is Mike Heiligenstein  and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority. The popular city in Texas is constantly growing; consequently the traffic problems are a significant issue. The traffic problems in Texas can be managed, but not eliminated. According to the Central Texas regional Mobility Authority,(CMRMA), a technical solution is the key to managing the difficult traffic congestion. Traffic solutions involve more than the creation of new roads and highways. Mobility Authority strives to create innovative solutions to manage traffic issues in Austin, Texas.

II. CAUSES: As a functioning asset to people, our roadways must be monitored, maintained and most importantly funded to keep the structures serving their intended uses safely. Also, we all know the adage, nothing lasts forever, and this is true with our roadways, but our society’s pollution accelerates the decay. And these are two main causes where we, as a nation have fallen short.

We were asked to create a prototype of ITW David Speer to show how we would minimize traffic around the area. ITW has a maximum density of 80 pc/ln/hr; it’s at a Los F which is the worse possible congestion you could experience. It faces the most congestion on the main streets such as Laramie, Grand and Central. We are also improving the health in humans such as stress levels through this new design. We must test and evaluate our results to ensure it meets the restrictions of it being Los F to becoming Los C or above. In order to improve all this we were given a budget of 2 million dollars.

With the constrained scenario, traffic flow has improved, commute time has decreased, workers are getting to their places of business faster, and the businesses themselves are finding that they can transport their goods in a more timely fashion. The measures that were employed consist of adding directional bike lanes to the bridge, restriping the bridge combined with timed directional transition of the middle 5th lane, additional bus routes, and converting old buildings into domiciles. Although these measures have helped to improve traffic flow in the region, capital will have to be spent at a future date in order to add additional

All of these solutions provide a viable way of increasing the safety of drivers in the intersection and also make the intersection easier to follow direction. The first solution is based upon the idea that the light pole will be shifted from the right side of Estes Parkway running north to the left side between the median. This solution would eliminate the two extra traffic lights above the parallel road, and focus on the intersection. The main issue with this idea is the cost involved with moving the traffic light. According to the WSDOT it costs the taxpayer $250,000 to $500,000 to purchase and install a traffic signal (WSDOT, n.d.). This also does not incorporate the amount of money that it would take to provide the construction to move the light from one side of the street to the other. Over all, this first solution could take upwards to 600,000 dollars to complete. The second solution to the intersection is based on the idea that the two traffic lights over the intersection could be taken down and in replacement there would be a sign placed in the spot instead. This would provide an easy understanding of the intersection and also the drivers would not be confused on which sign was meant for them. This change would save the city around 16,000 dollars a year based off of calculations from WSDOT in the amount of money it takes to maintain traffic lights a year. Again there would have to be a little construction, however, the cost to make this solution a reality would be much more cost efficient for the tax payers’ dollars. Finally, the third option is to completely redesign the intersection as a roundabout. The average cost to put an intersection in is just underneath 450,000 dollars (FHWA, 2015). That number however does not even begin to cover the operating expenses of the intersection. WSDOT amounts the cost of maintenance and electricity per year to be about 8,000

Thank you for providing the Land use Development/Intergovernmental Review/Community and Regional Planning (LD/IGR) the opportunity to review and comment on the Draft Project Report on Interstate Route 10 (I-10). The purpose of the Project is to improve traffic operations on the I 10 freeway in San Bernardino County to reduce congestion, increase throughput, and enhance trip reliability for the planning design year of 2045. We offer the following recommendations and comments on the Draft Project Report:

At the present moment, the city is in dire need of modifying other means of transportation in order to minimize heavy traffic congestion that we have experienced over the past year. With a new institution of higher learning opening up traffic will get worse once students start enrolling in college come next spring. Therefore, our immediate attention has been focused on addressing this issue so that we can come up with a permanent solution without scapegoating or externalizing the

The number of left turning vehicles per cycle is examined next. If there are less than two left turning vehicles per cycle during the peak hour, then a permissive left turn phase is adequate. It there are more than two left turning vehicles per cycle, the next parameter, speed limit, is assessed. Data collected showed that on average there were three left turning vehicles per cycle during the peak hour. If the speed limit or 85th percentile of the opposing approaching were greater than 45 mph, a protected left turn phase would be warranted. The observed speed limit at the intersection was 35 mph.

RTD’s new BRT project will save 29,575 Metric Tons of greenhouse gases (CO2) over a 20-year period through the reduction of auto trips. The long-term strategy to address these issues are to development a more balanced transportation system that emphasizes an expansion of convenient and high quality transit services throughout the region. The amount of congestion is expected to decrease over time as ridership increases. The BRT Expansion project is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve public health and the livability of Stockton. A growing number of Stockton residents prefer to drive less and rely more on walking, bicycling, and public transportation because it is much healthier. The shift from auto travel to transit, walking, and bicycling will result in significant reduction in transportation-related

Recently, I have brought to your attention the need to install a traffic light at the intersection of Dunn’s Crossroads, in the town of Elm City. The reasoning behind this recommendation is due to the many people who have been in accidents at this intersection. Some accidents have resulted in serious injuries and/or fatalities. As a result of these countless accidents, a while back, the town did place a four-way stop there. However, it hasn’t seemed to reduce the amount of accidents or confusion that occurs. By installing this traffic light, these issues will be eliminated.

There is a lack of co-ordination between transit planning and land-use planning. Two prime examples are the subway’s at the Spadina branch, they installed more than 35 years ago and still with little development along this underused route. The Bloor-Danforth line, nearly 50 years old, is almost as bad as the Spadina branch in having too little associated development, as are most parts of streetcar routes. Public transit is an essential in having a healthy and liveable city. Many Torontonians rely on cars and heavy duty trucks to get around due to the poor TTC services. These vehicles are approximately the cause of 28% of Toronto’s greenhouse gas emissions that pollute the air. Toronto has some of the longest commute times on the continent so it doesnt take much to make a bad situation worse. Toronto’s transportation system has been over capacity for the past 20 years. Toronto’s major highways and transit lines have a common challenge: they are in the middle of rapid urban growth, and they struggle to handle everyday incidents. Studies show that anually traffic congestion and gridlock in Toronto cost above $6 billion. Many of the problems Toronto’s transportation faces is due to lack of funding

Sustainability is of vital importance because anything we decide to do as a society will definitely have positively or negatively impact on the natural environment. When unsustainable action continues, they can harm the human existence by creating greenhouse gases that causes climate change, depleting natural resources that are needed for future energy and infrastructure, and polluting the air, soil, and water on which humans depends on for existence. We must change the way we procure materials, construct infrastructure and conduct our daily activates in other for these impacts to reduce (FHWA 2013). The benefits of sustainability in road maintenance as recognized by Kirkup and Allen (2015) are listed