Our municipality aim to widen a congested road inside the city in order to decrease congestion , while this road is not coverd by public transportation yet .
I want to argue that if public transport cover this road no need to widen the road anymore also widen the road is not a sustainable solution .
My municipality (actually two municipalities, two county governments and a regional transit authority) faces the same issue and is addressing it in a most economically inefficient manner. It's the fast growing Durham-Chapel Hill area in North Carolina, USA. Work is well advanced (detailed planning stage) on a 17 mile, $1.6 billion light rail (LRT) system linking the cities while at the same time there are plans to reduce congestion on the most congested 3 mile section by adding a lane to an existing highway. Google "Durham-Orange County LRT" for details.
What to do: (1) make public arguments on cost efficiency at hearings and write newspaper op-ed columns--few are listening (2) propose that rapid development of automated vehicles will increase highway capacity, making neither project necessary.
Good luck..
My municipality (actually two municipalities, two county governments and a regional transit authority) faces the same issue and is addressing it in a most economically inefficient manner. It's the fast growing Durham-Chapel Hill area in North Carolina, USA. Work is well advanced (detailed planning stage) on a 17 mile, $1.6 billion light rail (LRT) system linking the cities while at the same time there are plans to reduce congestion on the most congested 3 mile section by adding a lane to an existing highway. Google "Durham-Orange County LRT" for details.
What to do: (1) make public arguments on cost efficiency at hearings and write newspaper op-ed columns--few are listening (2) propose that rapid development of automated vehicles will increase highway capacity, making neither project necessary.
Good luck..
First of all, I would argue that widen a congested road will not solve the problem as a consequence of the rebound effect or induced demand effect (see for example http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856411001728). Then, I would propose discourage measures for private transport at the same time this new bus service is implemented. Transport users would change the mode of transport if both measures are coordinated (there are a lot of literature about this issue that could support your proposal).
Good luck
If there are single-family houses on the streets in question you could cite the results of my and John Blair's (International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis) paper which shows that these property values are likely to decline with increased traffic. However, If there is multi-family housing on the streets in question the results of our research will not help your argument.