The paper explores the traditional way of solving traffic congestion,
which has focused on increasing the capacity of the road network.
However, experience has shown that this solution works as a temporary
fix, the paper says. Most large cities in Asia have reached a stage
where adding lanes or building new roads has become difficult due to
land scarcity and increasing cost of construction materials. Coupled
with this, adding lanes may not be financially feasible and is not
environmentally sustainable. This further leads to greater traffic
congestion, which has an adverse impact on GDP. The solution lies in
creating sustainable transportation systems, the paper concludes.
Mr. Ridwan, who works as a Research Associate in the Transportation
Engineering (TE) field of study at AIT’s School of Engineering and
Technology wrote the report during his internship at UN ESCAP. The
paper was written by Mr. Ridwan under the supervision of Mr. Adnan H.
Aliani, Chief, Sustainable Urban Development Section, UN ESCAP; Dr.
Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Programme Director, CITYNET; and Dr. A.
S. M. Abdul Quium, Transport Division, UN ESCAP.
The report can be read at this link:
http://www.unescap.org/esd/suds/publications/Sustainable-Urban-Transportatation-System/Sustainable-Transportation-9.pdf