How to reduce traffic congestion

Adding more lanes onto roads

This is this most obvious method of reducing traffic congestion however it can also make it worse due to induced demand which is where due to an increase of supply, more of a good (in this case the roads) are consumed.

Alternative routes

By creating alternative routes, it reduces congestion in some areas as it spreads out the volume of traffic in an area if not everyone is using the same route. This can also be reinforced by introducing congestion charges in inner-city and inner-town areas across the UK. This is another good way of reducing road traffic as it will discourage people from entering them as they do not want to be charged. As it discourage people, they will be forced to seek out and find new alternative routes thus keeping fewer cars out of the busiest areas, this can also encourage people to use other means of transport such as buses.

Reducing demand is another way to reduce road traffic congestion where the demand is the number of traffic in the area.

Park and Ride schemes and Car Share

Park and ride schemes are when people park their vehicles in a dedicated car park for use of public transportation; this is a good way to reduce traffic due to a bus being capable of transporting a large number of people which reduces the number of vehicles on the road significantly if it is used effectively. Car sharing is another method similar to Park and Ride schemes where people who live in a similar area who all are going the same location (for example same workplace) all travel in one vehicle, this proves to be very effective as it there will be less cars on the road. Car sharing and Park and Ride schemes are also beneficial to the environment as less emission is emitted due to the reduced number of cars on the road. This also frees up parking space if the employees all work in the same company or area. This can prove to be effective when along with congestion charges as the charges can be split amongst the people using the car share.

Bypasses

Retail parks and industrial estates which are commonly found in large towns and cities which need to be accessed by many cars and lorries. Bypasses allow large heavy vehicles such as lorries to be able to travel to these areas without causing a disrupting in traffic as they can create moving bottlenecks which causes congestion and slows down traffic flow. If more bypasses are built this reduces slow moving traffic as well as being beneficial to the environment due to traffic reaching their destinations quicker.