How Public Transport Reduces Traffic Congestion
From Identifying and Evaluating Strategies To Reduce Traffic Congestion
Victoria Transport Policy Institute, January 2012
Urban traffic congestion tends to maintain equilibrium. If congestion increases, people change destinations, routes, travel time and modes to avoid delays, and if it declines they take additional peak-period trips (Rebound Effects). Reducing this point of equilibrium is the only way to reduce congestion over the long run. The quality of travel alternatives has a significant effect on the point of congestion equilibrium: If alternatives are inferior, few motorists will shift mode and the level of equilibrium will be relatively high. If travel alternatives are relatively attractive, motorists are more likely to shift modes, resulting in a lower equilibrium.
The actual number of motorists who shift from driving to transit may be relatively small, just a few percent of total travelers on the corridor, but that is enough to reduce roadway congestion delays. Congestion does not disappear, but it never gets as bad as would occur if quality transit service did not exist.
To attract discretionary riders (travelers who have the option of driving), public transit must be fast, comfortable, convenient and affordable. Grade-separated transit (such as rail on its own right-of-way or buses with [priority] provides a travel time advantage that tends to attract discretionary riders. When transit is faster than driving, a portion of travelers shift mode until the highway reaches a new congestion equilibrium (that is, until congestion declines to the point that transit is no longer faster). As a result, the faster the transit service, the faster the traffic speeds on parallel highways. Other types of Transit Improvements can also encourage motorists to shift to transit.
Shifting traffic from automobile to transit on a particular highway not only reduces congestion on that facility, it also reduces the amount of vehicle traffic discharged onto surface streets, providing “downstream” congestion reduction benefits. For example, when comparing the congestion reduction benefits of a highway widening project with some sort of transit service improvement, the analysis should not be limited to just the highway that is expanded. It is important to also account for the additional congestion on surface streets where highway traffic discharges resulting from increased traffic volumes, and the reduction in surface street traffic congestion that would result if the transit improvement attracts highway drivers out of their cars.
Improving travel options can therefore benefit all travelers on a corridor, both those who shift modes and those who continue to drive.
