Sunday 26 February 2012

How to improve traffic durning rush hour?

Traffic durning rush hour has been getting worse for years.

Our commutes to work have been getting longer and more stressful year over year.

One of the major traffic issues going to and from work is the number of transport trucks on the road during rush hour. Where are they going and what are they delivering?

Think about the various trucks you see on the road durning your commute to and from work, and ask yourself some questions about the trucks you see.

From my commute to work I see this at least 4 days a week on the 520 service road.
What is a Beer truck doing parked on a major road beside Tim Hortons at 7:20 in the morning? Who is the beer going to be delivered to after the driver gets his or her coffee? Why do they need beer delivery that early in the morning? When did the driver start delivering Beer in the morning that he or she needs to stop and get a coffee at 7:20 AM?

How many times does a truck pull out of a side road in front of you causing you to have to slow down because it can not get up to speed quickly? How many times have you had to slow down because a truck needs 2 or 3 lanes to turn off the road you are on?

Tucks making a delivery to a construction site blocking the road? Why are they delivering at 7AM? Because the contractor does not want to keep material on the job site. Why, because they do not want to pay for a security company to guard the material, so they want it delivered very early in the morning. So we all have to suffer blocked road because they are trying to save a couple of bucks.

So here is my Crazy Idea
Maybe we should look at keeping Transport Trucks off the roads in metropolitan areas between 7 AM to 9 AM and between 4PM and 6PM? Crazy Idea sure it is, but look at your commute and think about if there were no Transports on the road at that time? Do you think your commute would be easier? Not looking so crazy to many of you now is it?

Where do the trucks gofer the 2 hours? That is a reasonable question. They could be parked at their depot, remain at their last delivery, park at a restaurant and eat. There are a lot of places they could stay parked for the 2 hours.  I agree that this would cause some disruption to truck drives and some of their customers. Some more thought is needed on this but solutions can be found.

Would everything get deliver if the trucks are off the road for 4 hours a day in the City? Maybe, maybe not. We might need more trucks to deliver durning the authorized hours. The would increase employment to some degree. We would need some more trucks, which would also increase employment to some degree. We might need more shipper/receivers to load/unload the trucks, again this would also increase employment to some degree.

Down side to trying to get this idea in to reality would be that you could be come a target for blackmail or death, as some would oppose the idea. To run for any office with this as part of your platform would be very hazardous to getting campaign money and support from business.

Like I said it is a crazy idea but it might just work. The whole idea needs more work but I think it could be improve our commutes.

3 comments:

  1. They already have a law similar to your idea in Germany. Also trucks are only allowed in the farthest right lane on the highway! Unlike here where they are all over the highway!

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  2. Just not sure that this would ever pass in North America give the current governments

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  3. I can only think of the madness experienced during my January visit to Melbourne - right turns from the left lanes et cetera...

    I like this crazy idea.

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