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People are not likely to see an optimistic picture from traffic statistic.To help solve their traffic troubles and problems, some rapidly growing Us cities have simply built more roads.But traffic experts say building more roads is a quick-fix solution that will not relieve the traffic problem in the long run.Soaring land costs, increasing concern over social and environmental disruptions caused by road building , and the likelihood that more roads can only lead to more cars and traffic are powerful factors bearing down on a 1950-style construction program.
The goal of smart-highway technology is to make traffic systems work at best efficiency by treating the road and the vehicles traveling on them as an overall transportation system.Electronic check system, closed –circuit television radio communication and other smart-highway technology can now be used at a reasonable cost to improve communication between drivers and the people who monitor traffic.
Pathfinder, a California-based smart-highway project in which a 14-mile stretch of the Santa Monica Freeway, makes up what is called a “smart corridor ”,is being instructed with buried facilities in the pavement.
Not all traffic expert, however, look to smart-highway technology as the final solution to traffic jams.Some say the high-tech approach is limited and can only offer temporary solutions to a serious problem.
“It doesn't deal with the central problems of too many cars for roads that can't be built fast enough.It sends the people wrong massage,” explained Michael Renner.Larson agrees and adds , “smart highways are just one of the tools that we will use to deal with our traffic problems.It's not the solution itself, just part of the package.There are different strategies.”
Other traffic problem-solving options being studied and experimented which include car pooling, rapid mass-transit systems, flexible work hours and road pricing, a system whereby motorists pay a certain amount of the time they use a high way.
It seems that we need a new , major trust to deal with the traffic problems of the next 20 years.There has to be a big change.
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