User-agent: Mediapartners-Google* Disallow: Trucks World News
Google
 
Loading

May 18, 2017

TRAFFIC CONGESTION * USA: Costs trucking industry $63 Billion annually

* Virginia - Congestion costs $63.70 per every hour a trucker drives

--- Traffic congestion on U.S. highways annually cost the trucking industry more than $63 billion in operating expenses, including wasted fuel, labor costs and vehicle wear and tear, according to a study by the American Transportation Research Institute... In its report, the “Cost of Congestion to the Trucking Industry: 2017 Update,” the research arm of the American Trucking Associations, calculated that congestion delays on U.S. highways are for more than 996 million hours of lost productivity. That’s the equivalent of having 362,243 commercial truck drivers sitting idle for an entire year... Broken down, congestion costs $63.70 per every hour a trucker drives... The most congested state in the U.S. is Florida, accounting for 8.4 percent of the total cost, or more than $5.3 billion. Texas was second at $5.1 billion. It was followed by California with $4.1 billion, New York with $3.9 billion and New Jersey with nearly $3 billion in total congestion costs. The figures are calculated for 2015, ATRI reported... 
 Arlington, VA, USA - Trucks.com, by CLARISSA HAWES - MAY 17, 2017

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 4:50 AM  0 comments

Sep 27, 2016

TRAFFIC CONGESTION * Australia: Costs almost $14 billion a year.

* New South Wales: Only Sydney bears brunt of $3.3B in losses to gridlock

--- Sydney is the official gridlock capital of Australia, according to new data that shows traffic congestion is costing businesses in the nation's biggest cities more than $3.3 billion a year... The Tom Tom Traffic Index Report has revealed that despite more commercial vehicles being registered in Melbourne, Sydney's congestion levels are the highest in the country... However, while the NRMA says the figures come as no surprise, it argues that major infrastructure projects currently under way offer some light at the end of the tunnel... The Tom Tom report says traffic congestion has risen 8 per cent in Sydney over the past eight years, making it the 30th most congested city in the world and costing Sydney businesses $980.79 million a year... Tom Tom rates the city's traffic congestion level at 36 per cent after estimating that Sydney drivers spend an extra 151 hours on the road each year due to delays...
 Sydney, NSW, Australia - The Business News. by Nick Nichols - 23 September 2016

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 7:02 AM  0 comments

Feb 15, 2016

TACKLING TRUCKS CONGESTION * South Africa: Plan for night-time trucking

* Cape Town - Plus: Sensors to prevent road damage from overloaded vehicles, and air pollution control


-- This comes after a commitment announced by the city in mid-December to spend R750 million over five years for road infrastructure projects to alleviate major pressure points across Cape Town – the most congested city in South Africa‚ according to a GPS company... The new draft Freight Management Strategy aims to improve the efficiency and future growth of road-based transport of cargo‚ including to and from the port as well as the airport... 

 According to the city’s Transport Development Index (TDI):
 ° The direct transport cost (fuel‚ salaries‚ maintenance and repairs‚ toll fees) for freight operators is R1‚755 billion per annum;
 ° The cost of congestion for freight operators is R121 million per annum
 ° The impact of freight transporters on Cape Town’s residents in terms of accidents is R930 million per annum
 ° The impact of freight transporters on the city’s road network (capital expenditure and maintenance) is R713 million per annum. 

  ... The Port of Cape Town‚ the major generator of freight‚ has expansion plans to roughly triple its current container handling services in the next 20 years‚ which requires the city to address its capacity to accommodate this future growth... Globally ranked at 55 by GPS service provider Tom Tom‚ Cape Town is the most congested city in South Africa with morning commutes adding up to 72 percent of commuting time... 
 (Image by: Mark Skinner / Gallo Images - The new draft Freight Management Strategy aims to improve the efficiency and future growth of road-based transport of cargo‚ including to and from the port as well as the airport) -- Cape Town, CT, SA - TMG Digital - 15 febrero, 2016

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 5:59 PM  0 comments

Sep 15, 2015

TRUCK BAN * Philippines: Manila expand its truck ban to ban cargo trucks

* Parañaque - To expand truck ban for APEC summit


-- With the re-implementation of the truck ban along all Metro Manila roads starting Tuesday, the local government of Parañaque announced that the city would expand its truck ban to ban cargo trucks from the city’s major streets... In a statement on Sunday, Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez announced that the move was also in anticipation of the Manila leg of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and to address the “worsening traffic congestion in Metro Manila.” ... Under the expanded truck ban, would prevent APEC summit delegates from getting stuck in traffic jams... Covered by the ban are 10-wheeler cargo trucks, trailer trucks, transit mixers and heavy vehicles transporting sand and other heavy materials... The six-wheeler trucks would be exempted from the ban...
(PHOTO by TERESA CEROJANO/The Associated Press: Metro Manila traffic costing Philippines $64 million a day. This is what Manila drivers face everyday) -- Manila, Philippines - The Philippine Daily Inquirer, by Maricar B. Brizuela - September 13th, 2015

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 6:42 AM  0 comments

Oct 28, 2014

TRUCKS TRAFFIC CONGESTIONS * USA:

* California - Traffic at Los Angeles Ports backed up for 2 weeks, threatens holiday season

(Photo: Delays For Los Angeles Ports) 
Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Los Angeles Times -26 Oct 2014: -- Mirroring the legendary reputation of terrible Los Angeles traffic, a bottleneck has caused a two-week delay at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in LA county. The harbor traffic could create problems for retail outlets during the holiday shopping season... The pre-holiday surge of cargo for retailers like Wal-Mart, JC Penney, Macy’s, and Kohl’s has always been a busy time of year, but it’s made worse this year by the use of massive container ships. These larger vessels can be up to one-third larger than Los Angeles and Long Beach ports have the capacity to handle. The root of the problem, though, is likely due to a shortage of trucking equipment... Over the last year, third-party leasing companies have taken over the management of trucking equipment for the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. For decades before that, trailers were owned by the shipping lines. The uneven management of the trailers is causing shortages in some terminals and mile-long congestion in others. Compounding the inefficiency and delay, truckers sometimes have to make multiple trips before finally locating an available trailer. The leasing companies disagree with this assessment, and insist that the massive container ships and a shortage of truck drivers is to blame... The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports process 40 percent of imports to the United States (of A.). Other ports across the country are seeing delays but none quite this bad...

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 6:58 PM  0 comments

Aug 28, 2012

TRAFFIC CONGESTIONS * USA

* NY - Decoding Traffic In a Jammed City. A Picture of New York Congestion Emerges From Taxi Data

(Image from Getty Images: A line of yellow taxi cabs, cars and trucks clog Ave of the Americas as seen in this 2009 photo) 
New York,NY,USA -The WSJ, by TED MANN -August 19, 2012: -- It was almost a year ago, but by definition, many motorists missed it: Aug. 28 was the easiest date in 2011 to drive through Manhattan. That Sunday, the city's yellow taxis sped through Manhattan's central business district at an average of 16.3 mph, according to the New York City Department of Transportation... The slowest date: Jan. 28, a Friday after the city had been crippled by a blizzard that dumped nearly two feet of snow over three days. The average groundspeed was 6.9 mph... The city's slowest and fastest traffic days and a trove of other data were measured by the Department of Transportation using Global Positioning System data from the city's fleet of more than 13,000 taxi cabs. The data is included in the department's Sustainable Streets Index, an annual report to be issued Monday that describes in rare detail how people move through the nation's most densely packed city... In a town where walkers often outpace crosstown buses, dealing with congested streets is a tie that binds the city. An average of about 778,000 vehicles converge each day in Manhattan's central business district, defined as all of the island south of 60th Street... The report provides an uncommon amount of empirical data, from the percentage of commuters who walk or take public transportation to work (65%) to how many fewer pedestrians were injured along East 180th Street after street improvements (67%)... And it sheds light on what many motorists consider something of a dark art: discerning when they can best dodge traffic...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 12:37 PM  0 comments

Jul 11, 2012

TRAFFIC CONGESTION * USA

* DC - Congestion May Add $14 Billion in Costs for Washington State’s Freight Industry

(Photo: The cost of U.S. traffic congestion has jumped to $115 billion in 2009) 
Seattle,Washington,USA -Transport Topics, by Kari Travis -10 July 2012: -- A 20% increase in traffic congestion could cause a $14 billion spike in operating costs to the state’s freight-dependent industries, the Washington State Department of Transportation said in a new report... Out of 1,000 private-sector firms that include both trucking companies and businesses that operate or rely on trucks, the analysis found 56% said they would increase costs for consumers as congestion rose, 19% would absorb the costs and 16% would make internal operational changes to offset the costs. Only 6% would close businesses, leaving 3% to relocate...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 7:16 AM  1 comments

Sep 30, 2011

TRAFFIC CONGESTIONS * USA - Worst in Chicago, Fort Lee and Houston

(Photo by Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images: Los Angeles is the most congested city in the U.S., passing the New York area)

Washington,DC,USA -Fleet Owner, by Wendy Leavitt -Sep 22, 2011: -- Locations in Chicago, IL; Fort Lee, NJ, and Houston, TX, have earned the dubious distinction of holding the top three spots in the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI)/ Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) annual report on highway congestion at freight-significant highway locations...  In Chicago, I-290 at I-90 /I-94 emerged as the most congested section of highway in the nation, followed by I-95 at SR 4 in New Jersey and I-45 at U.S. 59 in Houston...  The research, released on Wednesday, assesses the level of truck-oriented congestion at 250 locations on the national highway system, uses ATRI-developed analysis methods, customized software tools and terabytes of data from trucking operations to produce a congestion severity ranking for each location. It is an ongoing is part of the Freight Performance Measures (FPM) initiative sponsored by FHWA’s Office of Freight Management and Operations and operated by ATRI...  The “FPM” congestion monitoring effort combines anonymous truck GPS location information with sophisticated software applications and analysis techniques to assess the levels at which truck-based freight was affected by traffic congestion in 2010. The result is a clear documentation of system chokepoints, especially during peak travel times in urban locations...


* Texas - Congestion cost trucking $23 billion in 2010

College Station,TXS,USA -Fleet Owner, by Deborah Whistler -Oct 5, 2011: -- A new study by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) said that the cost of congestion to the U.S. trucking industry – measured as wasted fuel and delay – was $23 billion last year...  While trucks only account for 6% of the miles travelled in urban areas, they represent 26% of the total cost of congestion, according to the Urban Mobility Report 2011...  Trucks are a key element in the just-in-time (or lean) manufacturing process; these business models use efficient delivery timing of components to reduce the amount of inventory warehouse space. As a consequence, trucks become a mobile warehouse and if their arrival times are missed, production lines can be stopped, at a cost of many times the value of the truck delay times, the study pointed out... The report suggests other strategies to mitigate congestion issues for trucking may consist of regulatory changes, operating practices or changes in the operating hours of freight facilities, delivery schedules or manufacturing plants..

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 12:38 PM  0 comments

Mar 14, 2011

TRAFFIC CONGESTIONS * USA - Metro areas' traffic congestion up 11% in 2010

Kirkland, Wash,USA -USA TODAY/Inrix National Traffic Scorecard, by Larry Copeland -13 March 2011: -- Nine smaller metropolitan areas — including Birmingham, Ala., Buffalo and Milwaukee — exceeded their 2007 congestion levels and are the highest on record... INRIX, collects traffic information from more than 4 million vehicles equipped with GPS devices and other sources for its annual National Traffic Scorecard report... The increase in congestion is fueled by more people driving and by people driving more, the report says... Its findings are supported by a new report from the government showing Americans drove 3 trillion miles last year, the most since 2007, which is before the financial collapse and unemployment shot up. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says drivers in the USA drove 20.5 billion more miles in 2010 than in 2009, a 0.7% increase... In 2010, travel on urban interstates rose about 1% from 2009 and is nearing 2007 levels, which were the highest ever recorded. Barring shocks to the economy or big sustained increases in fuel prices, volumes on these roads appear to be on a trajectory to setting records this year, INRIX says...(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images: Los Angeles is the most congested city in the U.S., passing the New York area)

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 5:25 PM  0 comments

Jan 29, 2011

Urban congestion * USA - D.C. area co-leads nation in traffic congestion

Search nation's largest urban areas to see commuters' yearly delays, excess fuel and congestion costs

Washington,DC,USA -The Washington Post, by Ashley Halsey III -January 20, 2011: ... The number of drivers in the Washington region who say they frequently feel uncontrollable anger toward another driver has doubled in the past five years, according to a Washington Post poll taken last year. Almost a third of drivers said they're overcome with that wild rage from time to time... One reason for that boiling frustration is contained in a report released Thursday, which found that Washington ranks first in the nation when it comes to hours wasted stuck in traffic... The most sophisticated number crunching done on traffic congestion says the average Washington area driver loses 70 hours a year - almost three full days - crawling along in traffic, tying the region with Chicago for worst in the country. Los Angeles, the perennial king of congestion, comes in third, with 63 blown hours... The news came in the annual national traffic survey done by the Texas Transportation Institute, a highly regarded research group based at Texas A&M University... (See Poll) (Photo from blog.thesietch.org: traffic congestion Washington,DC)

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 9:35 AM  0 comments

Jan 26, 2011

Traffic Congestion * USA - Rebounding with economy

Houston,TX,USA -Fleet Owner, by Wendy Leavitt -Jan 21, 2011:  --  According to the just-released 2010 edition of the Urban Mobility Report, published by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University, after two years of slight declines in overall traffic congestion – attributable to the economic downturn and higher fuel prices – leading indicators now suggest that as the economy is rebounding, so too are traffic problems...  For motor carriers and shippers hoping to save time by moving freight during off hours, the report offers more specific data on the best such opportunities:


* Approximately half of the total delays occur in the midday and overnight (outside of the peak hours of 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.) times of day when shippers and carriers generally have expected lighter traffic
* Midday congestion is not as severe, but it can cause problems, especially for time-sensitive shipments.


In Chicago, for example, truck delays resulted in a “congestion cost” of more than $ 3,349 million. Slow traffic in New York cost $3,133 million thanks to the time trucks spent stuck in traffic there...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 7:07 AM  0 comments

Jan 10, 2011

TRAFFIC CONGESTION * China - Wants to tame traffic in Beijing with new license law

Beijing residents must participate the city’s lottery system... Drivers that don’t have this special plate will not be allowed into the city center during rush hour...

Beijing,China -Tainted Green, by Kathryn Robbins -December 27, 2010:  --  As the Chinese economy grows, a new breed of middle class has emerged in the nation. Their increased buying power has given them access to items that were previously out of reach for many including the dream of buying a car. With this boom comes increased traffic and congestion in the capital, issues that the city hoped to curtail with a new license law which sent car sales in the city spiraling out of control and shocked Chinese automakers... Almost 4.8 million cars flood the capital’s streets each day and Beijing has struggled to keep up with the additional load with new parking garages and street construction... The government plans on reducing the number of license plates issued to Beijing residents to 240,000 in 2011; the city is on track to hand out 700,000 just in 2010. Starting on December 24th, Beijing residents must participate the city’s lottery system in order to snag a plate for their new ride. The majority of the plates will go to first time drivers, 2% will be allocated for commercial cars and trucks, and government vehicles will get 10%. Drivers that don’t have this special Beijing plate will not be allowed into the city center during rush hour... Residents certainly got the message about the 2011 license lotto and went on a buying spree; more than 30,000 new cars were snapped up in a single week. While the jump in sales is great news for car companies right now, the coming months will be a nightmare. Analysts predict that many of the lower-end dealers will be hit the hardest and almost half the dealerships in the city will be forced to close... (Photo: Beijing/China, highway traffic jam)


* China - Multiplying Drivers Run Over Beijing Traffic Plan

(Photo by Nelson Ching/Bloomberg: In September, a vacation exodus - for Autumn Festival - brought all of Beijing to a standstill, leading to 140 traffic backups in the evening rush hour)

Beijing,China -The New York Times (USA), by MICHAEL WINES -December 22, 2010:   ... 280,000 new parking spaces; 1,000 share-a-bike stations; 348 miles of new subway track; 125 miles of new downtown streets; 23 miles of tunnels; 9 new transportation hubs; 3 congestion zones; and 1 cure-all, “the use of modern technology”... Part of the problem is poor planning. Curiously, a city of more than six million drivers has virtually no stop signs, turning intersections into playing fields for games of vehicular chicken. Freeway entrance ramps appear just before exit ramps, guaranteeing multilane disarray as cars seeking to get off try to punch through lines of cars seeking to get on... In September, another vacation exodus — this time for Autumn Festival — gridlocked the entire city, leading to 140 traffic backups in the evening rush hour... China's President Hu Jintao, was said to have rejected some of the more restrictive proposals as too draconian for a progressive national capital. The city opted instead to throw more traffic officers onto the streets... Thus, the latest draft proposal, a clear compromise of better public transportation — longer subways and bike racks — and the parking lots, tunnels and surface roads that Beijing’s auto-centric society craves. And it hints at more restrictive measures, including limiting new car purchases to buyers who can prove Beijing residence, or even capping the number of cars that can be registered here annually... The final proposal is set to be released on Thursday. But car-crazy Beijingers are not waiting for the bad news...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 8:30 AM  0 comments

Dec 1, 2010

* Traffic, traffic everywhere: Traffic Congestions Worldwide

* Europe - Truck fleets should avoid London and Paris Traffic Congestion

London,UK/Paris,France -Fleet Owner, by Brian Straight -Nov 10, 2010: -- Any fleet with freight to move in Europe, would be well advised to avoid London and Paris. That’s one of the conclusions drawn from a study of European traffic congestion by Inrix, a provider of traffic services... Inrix supplies traffic data to Ford Motor Co., TomTom, MapQuest, Microsoft, and TeleNav to name just a few clients. The company offers statistical analysis of traffic data gleaned from various public and private sources... Drivers in Manchester spend an average of 72 hours per year stuck in traffic, slightly more than the 70 hours drivers in Paris spend, although Paris ranks as the most clogged city in the six European countries studied (U.K., France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg)... London is the second most clogged city, according to the study, with drivers spending an average of 54 hours per year in traffic... In Utrecht, The Netherlands, drivers will sit in traffic for 75 hours per year. Arnhem (67 hours), Den Haag (61) and Amsterdam (65) are also notoriously tough commutes, in that country, Inrix said... On average, the study revealed that drivers in the U.K. can expect a Travel Time Tax (T3)-- the amount of time it takes to travel on a congested road as opposed to the same road during uncongested times-- of 22%... By comparison, the T3 time in France is 14%; in Germany 19%; and 21% in both The Netherlands and Luxembourg...


* UK - Snow chaos spreads to south-east

London,EN,UK -FT, by Bob Sherwood and Chris Tighe -November 30 2010: -- The early winter freeze reached London and the south-east as fresh snow falls caused more disruption across the UK...  Parts of the capital, Kent and Essex were blanketed by snow for the first time this winter, disrupting commuters, drivers and air passengers in what has become the earliest widespread snowfall for 17 years...   The Met Office issued heavy snow warnings for Yorkshire and Humber, east Midlands, east and north-east England, London and south-east England...  The east coast mainline was forced to run an amended timetable and Eurotunnel freight services were suspended at Folkestone...  The north-east endured its sixth day of snow and freezing temperatures. With more than a foot lying even in urban areas, some councils have been forced to suspend bin collections...  Some roads in Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Cumbria were closed, with main roads impassable in Barnsley...    However, in most regions main routes were flowing freely and local authorities seemed better prepared for the freeze than they were last winter... (Photo from t1.gstatic:   Snow has caused substantial delays on the M20)


* USA - Cities with the worst traffic congestion

Chicago, ILL,USA -Fleet Owner, by Sean Kilcarr -November 29, 2010:   ...  NAVTEQ’s Traffic.com site compiled a “top 10” list of the U.S. cities with the worst traffic congestion, according to their own in-house pool of data compiled by 400 experts monitoring traffic 24/7 in 113 national markets... Those cities, listed in order with the very worst at the top, are:
  •  New York
  •  Washington DC
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Los Angeles
  • Philadelphia
  • Chicago
  • Dallas
  • Atlanta
  • Houston
Now, traffic congestion in general – and in these cities especially – is nothing new. Indeed, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI) urban mobility report, Americans annually lose a total of 4.2 billion hours in traffic congestion, wasting 2.9 billion gallons of fuel and $78.2 billion each year.


* Question is: Though, what to do about it?

New York,NY,USA -Fleet Owner, by Brian Straight -Nov 10, 2010:   ...   Some of the solutions that are being used worldwide to combat traffic congestion don’t go over too well with U.S. drivers. Take the concept of “congestion pricing” for example. It’s been used with great effect in Stockholm, Sweden, but only got the “go ahead” as policy following a city-wide referendum on the matter – and I just don’t think “congestion pricing” as a traffic management strategy would find much support among urban U.S. voters...
(Video:  by ReasonTV, Interview and editing:  Paul Detrick. Camera: Hawk Jensen.- 9 Nov 2010: Can't find curb-side parking? UCLA economist Donald Shoup can find you a space...  Professor Shoup is the author of The High Cost of Free Parking, and points out that, "just because the driver doesn't pay for parking doesn't mean the cost goes away"...  In addition to making it harder to find a spot when you need one, "free" parking exacerbates other problems, from pollution to traffic congestion. Using the power of market pricing, Shoup explains how to fix the parking mess in three steps...  Cities from San Fransisco to Washington, DC are already adopting Shoup's reforms)
 There’s another school of thought on traffic management that focuses on the vehicle parking issue. By removing what these experts dub “free” curbside parking, and implementing high rates of “pay-for-parking” meters in downtown locations, this would drive more folks to use alternative forms of transportation in lieu of cars – thus reducing not only traffic congestion but petroleum consumption and emission levels...

* It'll  be these plans solutions for ?  


 ...  AAA, for one, projected that 42.2 million Americans would don their travellin’ shoes for the recent Thanksgiving holiday this year, with said holiday “travel window” starting Wednesday, November 24 and ending yesterday on Sunday, November 28...  “Increasing traffic congestion places a tremendous burden on the economy as well as individuals. When traffic congestion increases in a region, it reduces the level of personal and commercial mobility, making a region less attractive to both employers and employees,” said William Wilkins, The Road Information Program’s executive director... What you think ... ??? ... (Photo: Pasadena's CAL,USA, freeway tunnel)

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 6:44 AM  0 comments

Nov 4, 2010

Traffic Congestion * Europe - Study: "National Traffic Scorecard "In Bigger Cities

INRIX National Traffic Scorecard Provides Revealing Look at Traffic Congestion in Cities Across the U.K., France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg

Krefeld,Germany -ITSAmerica.org (USA) - 2 Nov 2010:  -- In 2008, INRIX introduced the Smart Driver Network in Europe, which has been continuously expanding, presently providing real-time traffic data services in 18 European countries... Each report provides detailed information on urban congestion within the country/region of interest, and also provides comparison data with the other countries and urban areas within those countries...   This scorecard specifically utilized speed data for a one-year period, from 1 August 2009 through 31 July 2010. Key findings include:

Top 10 Most Congested Cities in Europe

1. Paris, France: Drivers waste 70 hours per year in traffic, Worst Hour = Tuesday 8:00-9:00
2. London, U.K.: Drivers waste 54 hours per year in traffic, Worst Hour = Friday from 17:00-18:00
3. Ruhrgebiet, Germany: Drivers waste 51 hours per year in traffic, Worst Hour = Friday, 15:00-16:00
4. Hamburg, Germany: Drivers waste 44 hours per year in traffic, Worst Hour = Friday, 15:00-16:00
5. Berlin, Germany: Drivers waste 35 hours per year in traffic, Worst Hour = Monday, 8:00-9:00
6. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Drivers waste 47 hours per year in traffic, Worst Hour = Monday, 8:00-9:00
7. Koln, Germany: Drivers waste 57 hours per year in traffic, Worst Hour = Monday, 8:00-9:00
8. Munich, Germany: Drivers waste 35 hours per year in traffic, Worst Hour = Monday, 8:00-9:00
9. Manchester, U.K.: Drivers waste 72 hours per year in traffic, Worst Hour = Friday from 17:00-18:00
10. Brussels, Belgium: Drivers waste 65 hours per year in traffic, Worst Hour = Monday 8:00-9:00


Worst Traffic Bottlenecks in Europe by country

France: In Paris, Paris Boulevard Périphérique direction Porte d'Orléans at Porte d'Italie
Germany: In Munich, The Heckenstallerstraße heading west up to Höglwörther
U.K.: In Birmingham, The M5 heading toward Birmingham at the M6
Belgium: In Antwerpen,The R1 heading toward Berchem up to Linkeroever
The Netherlands: In Amsterdam, Ringweg-Noord heading Coenplein up to Oost-Zanerwerf
(Photo by LeNantais044 - Paris : Circulation automobile sur le périphérique parisien au niveau de la porte de Châtillon à aller vers la porte )


* UK - Drivers spend more time stuck in traffic

London,UK -HGV Ireland -November 4, 2010:   ...  UK drivers spend more time in traffic compared to drivers in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, a survey as found... London ranks second after Paris as the most traffic clogged city among the six countries analysed... Belfast motorists can expect to spend 62 hours per year stuck in traffic, with Mondays between 8.00 and 9.00am the worst time of the week, a survey has found... The fallout from heavy traffic congestion hits the U.K. economy hard on several different levels... The scorecard found that the worst place and time to be on U.K. roads is in Manchester on Fridays from 17:00-18:00 where it takes on average 56 percent longer than the same journey in uncongested conditions... Overall, U.K. drivers incurred a Journey or Travel Time Tax of 22 percent meaning that a random journey along the U.K.’s major motorways during peak weekday driving hours takes an average 22 percent longer than the same journey would take in uncongested conditions... (Photo from uk.reuters: Manchester traffic congestion ...)

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 2:39 PM  0 comments

Aug 9, 2010

TRAFFIC CONGESTIONS WORLDWIDE * USA - For commuters in America, the future is now

Concept of commuting is approaching a turning point

(Video by Paul Moseley -July 23, 1010: Technicians at the Texas Department of Transportation monitor Tarrant County highway traffic with remote cameras from the TransVision headquarters in Fort Worth)

Forth Worth,TX,USA -The Star-Telegram, by Gordon Dickson -Jul. 24, 2010: -- Fed-up motorists are turning to technology to escape bumper-to-bumper traffic or at least make it more palatable. Several scientists and transportation experts say it's a trend in its infancy; during the next 20 years, huge segments of the population may dramatically redefine how they live, work and drive... Features once thought to be the stuff of science fiction could become part of everyday life. People may get around in cars that drive themselves. Employees may take part in conferences held in a virtual world -- where co-workers across town, or around the globe, appear close enough to touch... With technology taking the monotony out of the daily commute, workers may find that the physical distance between home and job no longer matters much. Families may live farther from city centers in search of a Utopian life -- setting the stage for a renaissance in suburban fringe areas as well as rural towns... The know-how to make these changes is emerging quickly, somewhat under the radar of a traveling public that may be too busy surviving the rat race to see what's coming... The costs of traffic are clear: tens of thousands of fatalities a year, environmental damage, loss of productivity. Efforts by federal and state officials to add highway lanes and build their way out of the problem have failed... With the help of technology, and a hankering to do things differently, motorists are ready to find their own way through the gridlock...


* Europe - EU adopts new Intelligent Transport Systems plan

Brussels,Belgium -Mobile Synergetics -July 13, 2010: -- The European Parliament has just approved a new Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) directive, aimed at creating a cleaner, safer, and more efficient transport system throughout Europe. The new is intended to accelerate the deployment of innovative transport technologies across Europe... Traffic congestion currently costs Europe around one percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). The Commission estimates that this can be reduced by some 10 percent through effective deployment of ITS technologies. Additionally, intelligent technology in cars and trucks could help prevent more than 5,000 deaths in road accidents annually, according to the Commission... The Directive authorizes the Commission to adopt functional, technical, organizational, and services specifications that address the compatibility, interoperability, and continuity of ITS solutions throughout Europe. Additionally, the Commission plans to establish a European ITS Advisory Group, comprised of representatives from relevant ITS stakeholders, to advise the Commission on the business and technical aspects of implementing and deploying ITS throughout the EU...


* Brazil - Shaky Infrastructure. Poor infrastructure tops the challenge among local and foreign companies.

San Paulo,SP,Brazil -Latin Business Chronicle, by Economist Intelligence Unit (USA) -August 2, 2010: -- Car makers may rejoice, but it is the millions of drivers that have to negotiate the dangerously unpaved roads that prevail everywhere except the main routes – and even many of these are potholed or need resurfacing. Poor infrastructure is one major reason that Brazil scores low in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s business environment rankings (based on 12 key business operating criteria), which places Brazil 40th out of 82 countries despite the expectation of some mild improvements in coming years... But ask local businessmen with international ambitions about their greatest concern, and the parlous state of the infrastructure will almost certainly top the list. In our survey, nearly one half of respondents (49%) point to “low standard or costly infrastructure including telephones, transport networks and utilities” as the main operational obstacle, far more than selected corruption, poor governance (34 percent) or skills shortages (32 percent), the state of transport infrastructure is particularly dire...

In spite of some improvement in logistics, freight depends on costly road haulage; there are few railroads; the potential for waterways remains largely unexplored; and ports and airports are congested. This can add one quarter or more to the cost of getting goods to market, say investors... High public spending commitments are crowding out the paltry 1 percent of GDP that is proposed for investment in infrastructure, while limited private sector investment in transport will not make up the shortfall. Little more than 10 percent of Brazil’s road network is paved, and even these are poorly maintained. The exceptions are the main toll roads managed by private operators since the late 1990s, such as the main São Paulo-Rio de Janeiro motorway. As well as growing car usage (with 25 million vehicles now on the roads) more than 60% of cargo transportation is by truck, even though this method is slow and costly. Many fleets comprise owner drivers with ageing vehicles, and this makes it hard for a company to develop an overarching view of its logistics needs... The problem is that no-one takes “end-to-end” responsibility for the whole logistics journey... (Photos: Google Images & Claus Bunks - CONGESTED Brazil's ports and airports are congested, adding further costs to transport. Here San Pablo's Guarulhos airport and Santos port)

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 5:15 PM  0 comments

Jul 22, 2010

World Traffic Congestion * WORLDWIDE - Study: IBM Global Commuter Pain Index measures

... The traffic here is worse than almost anywhere else

Armonk,NY,USA -Gizmag, by Ben Coxworth -July 20, 2010: ... As part of its research and development of traffic management systems, IBM decided to find out just which places do have the worst traffic - or at least, which places have the residents who are most negatively affected by it. The results: if you don’t like traffic, don’t live in a fast-growing metropolis... For its first-ever Global Commuter Pain Index, the company surveyed 8,192 drivers in 20 cities on six continents, getting feedback on issues such as commuting time, anger caused by driving in traffic, and the amount of time stuck in traffic...
Cities such as Los Angeles, New York and London, long thought of as traffic hellholes, actually scored relatively low on the index. This, say the researchers, is because those cities have been experiencing slow, steady growth over the past several years, so the traffic infrastructure has been able to keep up with the increased amount of vehicles on the road... Places like Moscow, New Delhi, and the top spot holder Beijing, however, have been growing too fast. According to the Beijing municipal taxation office, the number of new cars in that city rose by 23.8 percent in the first four months of 2010. It’s no surprise that 95 percent of Beijing motorists surveyed felt that roadway traffic had negatively affected their health - the global average was 57 percent. Beijing does plan on investing over 331.2 billion yuan (US$48.8 billion) by 2015 to improve its traffic infrastructure, but that doesn’t free the roads up right now...
Other findings of the survey included the facts that 49 percent of global drivers thought traffic has gotten worse in the past three years, 87 percent have been stuck in traffic causing an average one-hour delay, and 31 percent have encountered traffic so heavy that they turned around and went home... The city with the least painful commute, should you be curious, was Stockholm. Melbourne and Houston closely followed, in a tie for second-least... (Photo above: Traffic on the streets of Beijing, the worst offender on the index)

Labels: ,

posted by Unknown @ 3:43 AM  0 comments

Jun 9, 2010

Congestion Tracking * USA - To Speed Up Freight Routes

Arlington,VA,USA -EZine articles, by A. N. Flitter -2 June 2010: -- In order to persuade the transportation departments in each state to invest in congestion hot spots across the U.S., the American Transportation Research Institution (ATRI) has been gathering data from individual trucks to determine how much of an issue congestion in certain areas really is... The ATRI has been collecting data since 2002 through communication devices installed in trucks by the fleet managers to monitor their own fleets and gather information about individual trucking routes... Overall, the ATRI has tracked congestion information from over 650,000 trucks across the country. They've used that data from the individual trucks to identify and rank the 100 most congested U.S. Highway bottlenecks... The intent of this program was to not only draw attention to these congestion hot spots, but to persuade those with the power to do so to improve the road conditions in these areas... (Photo from metroplanning.org: Chicago's congestion)

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 12:30 PM  0 comments

Apr 29, 2010

TRAFFIC JAM * Europe - Most congested cities

Brussels,Belgium -HGV UK -April 26, 2010: -- A new study has unveiled Europe’s 59 most congested cities for drivers – and Brussels is top of the list. Poland and the UK are also places where urban driving can be a nightmare, while Spain and the Nordic countries offer a smoother journey... According to the study, drivers in the home of the European Commission face delays on over 37.7 per cent of its main roads each day – narrowly beating Warsaw into top spot on the list. Another Polish city, Wroclaw, is in third place... Driving in much of Franceis a happier experience – once you can escape Paris and Marseilles, no other French city is listed... With six further cities in the lower levels of the table, Germany has a greater number of congested cities than anywhere else – though this may reflect the number of large cities the country has... Residents of Spain and the Nordic countries are most likely to escape the jams. Only three Scandinavian cities make the top 20 – Oslo is 16th with 26 per cent of roads congested, while its Swedish counterpart Stockholm has just 6 per cent... (Photo from gpsblog.pl: Warsaw Traffic jam)

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 12:25 PM  0 comments

Mar 7, 2010

CONGESTIONS & SOLUTIONS * USA - America's Most Congested Highways

These Roads and Bottleneck Intersections Drive Commuters Crazy Each Day

New York,NY,USA -ABC News, by SCOTT MAYEROWITZ -Feb. 25, 2010: -- Drivers trying to get through the New York City area might want to rethink their routes or take public transportation: five of the country's worst 10 highway interchanges are in the Big Apple... And most of those are along the 8.3-mile-long Cross Bronx Expressway, a narrow highway blasted through dense bedrock that takes Interstate 95 across the northern part of the city... Chicago-area residents may also want to leave their cars at home. The Dan Ryan Expressway, which cuts through the city's South Side, has five of the top 25 worst interchanges in the country, according to a new study by INRIX, a firm that provides real-time traffic and navigation services to private companies, government agencies and the public... The Cross Bronx, Dan Ryan and other roads around the country might have been built as superhighways, but today, they often look like parking lots... Traffic moves at an average of only 11.4 miles an hour, for instance, at the nation's worst interchange, where the Cross Bronx meets the Bronx River Parkway at exit 4B. Traffic is backed up at that spot a shocking 94 hours a week...For those who don't drive in New York or Chicago, don't fret -- there are plenty of traffic nightmares near you... The sixth-worst spot in the country is at the southern end of Interstate 91 in New Haven, Conn., says INRIX. The seventh-worst is an intersection on the Hollywood Freeway, Route 101, in Los Angeles near Los Angeles Street... (Images Forbes: Intersections. Job cuts are felt on highways across the U.S.)


* Canada - Truckers peer into their crystal balls



Winnipeg,MB,CAN -Today's Trucking -25 Feb 2010: -- Imagine a truck smart enough to tell you that up the road, about 500 feet, another vehicle is approaching the intersection, on your right, and not slowing down fast enough to come to a complete stop in time... So, you take your foot off the accelerator, cruise up to the intersection a little slower and a few seconds later than you would have, and sure enough that vehicle you were warned about obliviously blows through their stop sign... How far off in the future is technology like that, 10, 20, 30 years?.. Implementation of these Intelligent Transportation Systems in the trucking industry may be years away, but that kind of technology has been developed... That was just one of the insights discussed during the Future of Trucking Symposium in Winnipeg last week. The University of Manitoba Transport Institute hosted the event and brought together a number of speakers who provided a glimpse of what the future has in store for trucking... (Video from YouTube, by roadtransport -UK- 4 March 2010: "Volvo Trucks Cornering Lights on the FH.mpg" Neat little video animation of Volvo Trucks'-Sweden- 'cornering lights' on their FH truck range. This was shown at the original Volvo Fh16.700 product launch in January 2009)

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 7:46 AM  0 comments