Effectiveness of Traffic Restraint Policies

Abstract

Public policy regarding the urban transport problem has undergone important changes over the past thirty years. From one perspective the perception of the urban transport problem has widened, as issues such as environmental protection, safety and and problems in financing public transport provision have been added to the more traditional concern of excessive traffic congestion. Nevertheless, traffic congestion remains at the forefront of policy analysis, although here too there has been a change in perspective, in this case in relation to the appropriate emphasis public policy should take. In the past, policy has often centred on expanding the infrastructure for traffic, adopting technologies which increase the capacity of the existing network and on attempting to make public modes more attractive. The shift has recently been towards containing traffic growth by discouraging the use of the private car either through physical restraints or by the adoption of fiscal measures.