What's Up with All This Traffic?
Expanding on the topic of objects in motion covering Newton's laws of motion, acceleration and velocity, which are taught starting in third grade, students are introduced to new concepts of speed, density, level of service (LOS) (quality of roadways), delay and congestion. Every day we are affected by congestion—even if we do not step out of our homes. For example, the price we pay for goods increases due to increases in shipping costs caused by congestion delays. A congestion metric would help us to compare roadways and assess improvement methods. A common metric used to measure congestion is called level of service (LOS).
Engineers analyze traffic and congestion to make important decisions on where to spend construction funds.Copyright Washington State Department of Transportation http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR520Bridge/Photos/Daily.htm
It is estimated that traffic congestion caused roughly 700 million person hours of delay per year in the early 1980s, more than 2 billion hours of delay in the 1990s, and nearly 3.5 billion hours of delay by 2000. The costs of congestion from time delay, reduced productivity, lost opportunity and environmental emissions are approaching $100 billion a year. Continuing growth in the nation's population and economic activity ensures that these costs will continue to rise. LOS is used by engineers to determine priorities for allocating funding for roadway improvements to reduce congestion.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Explain that speed is a measurement of motion.
- Calculate speed given distance traveled and time.
- Describe the graphical relationship of distance vs. time for constant speed.
- Describe congestion and its levels.
- Identify the impacts of congestion.
- Explain the responsibilities of engineers to reduce congestions and its associated costs.