Pour en finir avec les encombrements: Du nouveau dans le traitement de la congestion

Time is money, as the saying goes, and time wasted is therefore costly both to the individual and also to the community when it comes to clogged roads. What should then be done to reduce the waste of time and the costs incurred by traffic congestion? In this article André de Palma, Serge Pahaut and Émile Quinet, all three experts on transport issues, share with us the latest available research on traffic congestion. They describe the costs of congestion for society and then discuss the methods adopted so far and the very limited measures used to influence trie behaviour of motorists. They go on to stress the important role that the new information and communication technologies can play in dealing with congestion. They describe the first attempts to apply these technologies to traffic flow problems (telecharging, zoneuse charging, etc.), in France and elsewhere (e.g. London and California), and they high-light the new opportunities to provide incentives for motorists to organize their road use in a more rational manner. They also discuss the best ways of improving the situation in the area around Paris (their preference is for urban toll roads) and examine the obstacles to implementing the various methods of reducing congestion. Lastly, they offer some prospects for possible ways of coping with traffic problems in future, though this naturally depends on vehicles being equipped with advanced technologies.