By the year 2050, the population of Boise will be five times greater than it is today. This will create major problems with regards to traffic congestion on an infrastructure that is already stressed. In order to solve this problem, alternatives need to be found for drivers, and those drivers need to see a need for those alternatives.
The addition of properly designated and maintained bicycle lanes, which are separated from traffic lanes, may entice drivers to use their bicycles instead of their cars. These lanes could run both alongside traffic and off of the roads altogether. Another strategy is designating car pool lanes. These may be helpful in convincing drivers to pool their resources, thereby decreasing the cars on the road. Neither of these solutions would require major reworking of existing infrastructure or additional space.
With these solutions in place, it remains only to convince drivers to utilize them. This may be encouraged in two ways. The first is to add toll zones, both automatic and manual. Having to pay a toll to drive may give a driver a reason to find another way to travel. The automatic toll lanes will grow in popularity as drivers realize how much faster they are than waiting for their turn in a manual toll line.
An education and marketing program could be instituted that would highlight the environmental cost of city traffic congestion, pointing out that by carpooling or cycling these harmful effects can be reduced. This may convince the environmentally conscious driver to travel in a different way.
The measures listed above do not require more than existing space, or a major restructure of current infrastructure. By implementing measures such as these the impact of the growing population and consequent traffic congestion may be reduced.
- Penn, Michael R and Philip J Parker. Introduction to Infrastructure: An Introduction to Civil and Environmental Engineering. John Wiley and Sons. 2011. Print.
