Traffic Congestion and Transit Elevated Buses

Introduction

Over the years, the Chinese government has been working hard to build infrastructure for public transportation that minimises the pressure on the roads of the city , which is a good aspect of civil engineering dissertation help. Almost all major Chinese cities are currently building or expanding their subway systems. Additionally, to make these projects more enticing, often, their prices are subsidised. Generally, the cities in China also have extensive bus networks, and there are buses there that go virtually everywhere that could be imagined (Wen, Sun and Zhang, 2014). Efforts have also been made by the government aimed at improving long-distance travel through the construction of new airports and the rolling out of massive networks of high-speed trains. These high-speed trains are designed in such a way that they can get people to their destinations within shorter periods while also keeping them off the highways. Restrictive measures have also been taken by city governments to limit the number of cars that ply the roads. For instance, in Beijing, the even-odd rule has been implemented, which stipulates that at any given time, only those cars that have odd or even-numbered licences can be on the roads on any given day.

Discussion

China did not always have problems with traffic. However, the Chinese have had to adapt their lives to gridlocks as a result of the increasing urbanisation over the years. The situation is terrible. These traffic congestions contribute to the pollution of the environment and also lower the quality of life. In 2010, there were a 100 kilometres long traffic jam in the China National Highway that lasted for ten days and involved thousands of cars (Guo, Liu, and Yu, 2011). Some of the reasons why traffic in China is so bad include;

Like the majority of other older global cities, the majority of the cities in China were not planned and designed for cars.

Additionally, they also were not designed to support the massive populations currently in China. For instance, a city like Beijing has a population of over 20 million (Liu, Yue, and Zhao, 2015). As such, the roads in most of the cities are not big enough.

The consideration of cars as being status symbols is another cause of the problem. The purchase of a vehicle in China is seen as being more of a show of wealth and not about convenience (Whang and Zhu, 2011). There is a large number of white-collar workers spread across the different cities in China who would have otherwise been satisfied with the use of public transport who go ahead with buying cars with the sole intention of keeping up with others.

Another cause of the problem is that the roads in China are filled with new drivers. Cars were far less common a decade ago in China. China only broke the two million vehicle mark in 2000. However, a decade later, the number of cars was more than five million. What that implies is that at any time, the number of well-experienced drivers is low. That brings about questionable driving decisions too often.

The driver education in China is rather weak, and most driving classes are offered on closed courses. As a result of that, the majority of the graduates from these driving schools are usually taking to the roads for their first time. That leads to the high accident rates in China, with a fatality rate of 36 for every 100,000 cars. That rate is twice as much as the rate in the United States. And when compared to other countries in Europe like Spain, Germany, France, and the U.K., the rate is several times more.

The traffic congestion, to no small extent, leads to pollution of the environment. In 2015, a Chinese documentary titled "Under the Dome," highlighted the pollution suffocation levels across China. In the documentary, in one of the scenes, Chai Jing, a Chinese journalist cum documentary producer, asked her daughter if she had ever seen a real star to which she replied, no. Jing then asked her whether she had ever seen a blue sky to which she replied that she had only seen a sky that was a little blue, adding that she had only seen one that was a little blue (Ren, 2019). Jing also asked her whether she had ever seen white clouds to which her daughter replied no.

China has been putting effort towards cutting pollution through reducing the congestion on the city roads, which is measured by the number of hours spent by drivers in rush hour traffic (between 7 am-9 am and 5 pm -pm).

Smart city technologies could be adopted to make things easier in cities. There are several ways through which these could be implemented, and they include the following. The adoption of adaptive traffic signals. Through the use of V21 technologies, traffic signals have been observed to get smatter. Cities like Ohio and Columbus are already using data gathered from fleet vehicles owned by the government as part of the pilot programs of the city to improve the timing of traffic signals (Kostakos, Ojala and Juntunen, 2013). But obtaining better ideas of the flow of traffic and the time vehicles spent at stoplights, cities are put in better positions to modify the timing of traffic signals with the changes in traffic throughout the day.

Adaptive traffic signals are one piece to some smart corridors. Roads that are congested with traffic and health hazards can be addressed by intelligent corridors (Rizwan, Suresh, and Babu, 2016). A proper example of this is the Wyoming highway that is heavily used for transportation of freight in addition to regular passenger cars. The government of China could adopt V21 technologies in all its cities that would send alerts related to accidents and the weather to those drivers who volunteer for the program. To effect this, it would be necessary to install short-range communication units along highways that would be capable of communicating with other vehicles with the devices installed and other units as well. That would go a long way in bringing about significant effects on safety and even on the economy, and that is because less energy would be spent on highway closures and accident clean-ups.

The reduction of the number of passengers could also deal with traffic congestion by helping to cut on the number of passenger vehicles on roads.

The provision of real-time traffic feedback is another viable solution for dealing with traffic congestion. Such an initiative would affect the use of public transit, like the new Kansas project that has a free streetcar that ferries up to 6,200 passengers daily in the major business district. Real-time traffic feedback is responsible for the success of the Kansas project, and it is worth noting that, that is not just for where precisely the streetcars are at all times but also the traffic around the kiosks and downtown areas that shows the parking spaces that are available (Kekhare and Sekhare, 2013).

Elevated bus systems could also be adopted to help minimise traffic congestion. The Transit Elevated Buses are entirely electric vehicles. It is worth noting that the idea of elevated buses is not wholly new. In 1969, two American architects Lester Walker and Craig Hodgetts, made the original proposal of a public transport concept that was referred to as “The Bos-Wash Landliner” that run between New York and Boston. This was an even more futuristic concept because the bus ran on nearly friction air cushion bearings at 200 miles per hour, without ever stopping (AMUSING PLANET, 2016). The idea, however, just remained as an idea as it was way unreal to be developed.

For propulsion, the Transit Elevated Buses make use of systems of hub-mounted motors. That is quite important because it allows the drive train to be highly modular. That facilitates and further allows for easy to service and swap components and further does away with the need for independent steering mechanisms. It is possible to either speed up or slow wheel motors to allow for the same type of skid steering as is used on rovers and tanks (Stromberg, 2007).

The passengers in these elevated buses would have ride experiences similar to those who travel in double decker buses. They would board and further alight at stations that are at the side of the road and that have platforms at the floor of the bus whose height is the same as that of elevated railways. Different versions of these buses will carry up to 1,200 passengers and the larger versions of the buses are actually articulated to facilitate going curves (Huang, 2017). The buses would also have alarms that would go off as warnings to any cars that travel too close to them and signals that would warn other vehicles when they are about to make turns. The evacuation slides on buses would be inflatable and similar to those of aircrafts. Sensors could also be included in the buses, even though optional to prevent them from colliding with people and objects like over height vehicles in front of them and rear safety curtains and lights that would prevent drivers whose vehicles are over height from going under the elevated buses.

Critical Evaluation of Innovation Tools

Cost-benefit analysis is used for the evaluation of the different possible solutions. Relatively, the concept is simple and involves the weighing of costs against benefits and the utilisation of outcomes for prioritisation of ideas. While, in most instances. Financial data is used for calculation of benefits and costs, other costs and benefits could as well be included like the social benefits accrued from the project (Pearce, 2016). This analysis involved the identification and subsequent evaluation of cost elements and the subsequent analysis of the benefits in the same way. The final step involves the comparison of benefits and costs.

Cost Elements of the Elevated Bus Transit System

Song Youzhou, the project manager of the elevated buses posits that a single Transit Elevated Bus could replace as many as 40 conventional buses. Additionally, it is possible to connect together up to four of these buses which ends up creating some sort of a tramway. According to estimates, the making of a single bus together with a guide way of 40 kilometres would cost up to US$ 74.5 Million. That is one-tenth of the amount required for the construction of an equivalent subway (Buckley and Feng, 2016). The building of the bus costs US$ 4.5 million which is one-sixteenth the price of a subway train/ what can be drawn from this is that it is possible to roll out the Transit Elevated Buses far more quickly in comparison to underground trains. That is because of the relative simplicity of the supporting infrastructure.

unlike the construction of roads and rail systems that requires a lot of money for resettling people who are settled along the places where the roads intend to pass, such costs are absent in the Elevated Bus System.

For the elevated transit systems, money would need to be put in carrying out feasibility studies to ensure the viability of the system in the long run.

The lower part of elevated bus systems is designed like a tunnel that allows lower cars to pass through freely, while the passengers in the elevated bus stand on the upper deck. The aim of this elevated buses would be to minimise traffic congestion by up to 30% without the need for cities to put up transport infrastructure that is expensive like the putting up of a sub way system, a bridge or a mono rail. The systems estimated costs are way lower than the costs of creating equivalent subway systems.

Benefit Analysis

Elevated bus systems help with public transformation. They aid in cutting down on air pollution and also carbon emissions. The systems also have shorter construction periods and low costs. Generally, it is a cheaper, faster alternative to the systems of transportation in existence that is also greener. While there are several heavy costs that will be incurred for this project, the benefits expected to be accrued from it weigh down all costs.

Smart Technologies

Adoption of autonomous vehicle technologies could also help reduce traffic congestion. While the number of cars on the roads won`t necessarily be decreased by autonomous vehicles for passengers, with reduced driver-induced traffic and fewer accidents, congestion is likely to be reduced by autonomous vehicles. One good example of an autonomous vehicle technology is platooning. If autonomous technologies were adopted for all roads, vehicles would be able to slow, speed up and even merge off and onto freeways without any direction from human beings (Kostakos, Ojala and Juntunen, 2013). Eventually, that would create smoother driving patterns. Platooning requires vehicles on freeways to communicate to one another about conditions and speed that allows the consistent travelling of the buses and as such, this is a first step towards cars that are self-driven. The system would do away with human errors that bring about issues like phantom traffic, brought about by the ripple effects of drivers braking on freeways.

With concepts like real-time traffic feedback, it becomes easier to sell other concepts like congestion pricing to those consumers who are used to accessing roads at no charge. Instead of the typical toll for express lanes, that would change the structure of pricing based on peak traffic times and also for exempt and higher quality cars.

Elevated Bus Transit Systems

All the other options provided in this paper for dealing with traffic in China have already been implemented successfully apart from the Transit Elevated Buses. As such, more efforts, resources and research should be put to ensure that this systems are implemented. During the unveiling of the Transit Elevated Buses project back in 2010, its critics questioned whether it would ever be capable of safely interacting with other vehicles, particularly in the manoeuvring efforts when changing lanes. It was also argued that roads that were relatively straight would be required for the roads that were absent in most of the older urban areas and that a lot of space would be required for the overhead boarding stations that were required by the buses.

The chief engineer of the project, Song Youzhou, however argued that between the car lanes and bus tracks, there would be constructed guardrails that would pass through the elevated buses to prevent traffic accidents. This rails would be capable of absorbing up to 70% of the impacts of collisions and that would minimise the damages to the buses and also to other vehicles (Buckley and Feng, 2016). There would be limits on the lanes used for the elevated buses such that only the vehicles not more than 2.2 metres can pass through.

In their successful operation, the main challenge would be the size of those batteries that are required to give the buses usable ranges. But the design of the TEB is such that it only travels for short distances between stations and as such is designed to work off systems of direct relay charging systems. What that implies is that every stage would have a conductor arm that would drag along the TEB`s roof and connect to pairs of rails and as such, providing power to the buses as they move through the stations. With time consideration could be given to other possible ways through which these elevated buses could be powered, for example, they could be powered using solar energy.

Marketing of Elevated Bus Transit Systems

The elevated bus systems will rely on market differentiation to distinguish the new system from other forms of transportation. To achieve successful product differentiation, it would be necessary to identify and further communicate the unique qualities of the offerings of an elevated bus system while also highlighting the distinct differences between it and other offerings in the market. The differentiation of products always goes hand in hand with development of strong value prepositions to increase the attractiveness of products and services to their target markets (Overton, 2018). Successful differentiation of products creates competitive advantages for the sellers of products and builds awareness of brands eventually.

When marketing the Transit Elevated Buses to the members of the public, it would be necessary to let it known to them the advantages of these buses over the normal modes of transportation. Customers need to be well aware of why they should abandon the form they use for a new system.

To popularise the systems, they could be advertised through social media and also through adverts on televisions and radio stations.

Environmental and Social Impacts

Elevated bus systems would reduce the overall amounts of travelled vehicle kilometres in Chinese cities by shifting commuters to the buses with higher capacities of carrying even more than 800 passengers at a go. A less number of vehicles transporting an equal number of passengers would minimise traffic congestion and also provide opportunities for replacing many vehicles and as such also go a long way in minimising pollution. The incorporation of solar and electronic technologies to drive these buses would imply lessened fuel consumption and subsequent emissions. The concentration of ambient air pollution citywide is lowered by cleaner vehicle and fuel technologies. These elevated buses are also able to move faster and the exposure of passengers to air pollution whether inside buses or at stations would be reduced even further by the shorter travel times. That implies that China has a better chance of reducing local air pollution through adoption of elevated bus transit systems.

Improvements in Traffic Safety

The implementation of an elevated bus transit system would lead to reduction of traffic crashes and also fatalities. First, the adoption of these elevated systems would eventually see a reduction in the number of drivers on the roads and also create safer transport environments for cyclists, drivers and pedestrians.

Savings on Travel Time

The elevation of elevated bus transit systems separates them from mixed traffic which allows them to move quickly through cities. Waiting times would be minimised by traffic signal management that prioritises elevated buses and also pre-paid boarding and level platforms that are reminiscent of metro stations instead of the traditional bus stops. With regards to quality of life, savings in travel time are with no doubt important benefits of elevated systems. They provide passengers with more time to live and less to commute.

References

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