Urbanization with its opportunities for development and growth attracts several ills as humans are in constant search for a better life and greener pastures; over-crowding, imbalance of resources available in proportion to the demand, pollution, and ultimately traffic, are all devastating problems that abound.
Traffic is a nightmare across the globe and innovative solutions need to be developed and implemented to at least reduce to the barest minimum, if not to eliminate, the nuisance.
Contextually speaking there are several in-exhaustive but succinct solutions that can produce positive results in this regard. These strategies require input from different levels of society’s key players to implement – government, individuals or industry experts, and influential persons in all the sectors that exist in the ecosystem.
In terms of infrastructural amenities, some places experience a lack of affordable housing close to highly commercialized and business areas. This challenge with conducive, affordable housing has left individuals with options that negatively impact their health and overall quality of life seeing that they end up residing in a different part from where they work and become prone to encountering traffic while commuting. Factors responsible for this could be low or poor income or issues that stem from the absence of functional and organized affordable housing solutions that can be easily paid for by everyone on the income chain.
Government and key players in the Architectural, Engineering, and Construction industry need to look into the provision of affordable housing schemes situated close to workplaces, developed, and commercial areas, to enable those working in such places to eliminate wasting hours in traffic daily.
Government and policy regulators can develop and implement a policy that would find organizations and companies providing basic on-site accommodation for staff during the week. This a worthy alternative to the strategy explored above, the question, however, is how many would be willing to follow through? On the other hand, employers can adopt a telecommuting work-system as a substitute for on-site accommodation. Employing the use of this strategy would eliminate the need for workers to commute daily to a physical office building. This is one of the quickest and smartest strategies that can be incorporated into the world of work to eradicate wasted hours in traffic daily.
Bad roads garnished with portholes, ditches, and gullies are without a doubt another contributory factor to the phenomenon that is traffic. The other strategies highlighted might not sit well with some individuals or might take some time to implement but a situation where the roads are made to be better with less physical issues, vehicles can move faster and ultimately spend less time on the road.
Finally, better and more efficient public transportation inclusive of train systems is another strategy that can produce tremendous positive results to abating this ill, anywhere in the world. A connecting and conducive transportation system in any society would provide a faster and more efficient means that more individuals would feel obliged to use regardless of class or status.
Exhaustive strategies do not cut it for this menace, several others exist. With research and thorough understanding of our specific environment, the solutions to heavy traffic all lie in plain sight – we need to find them.
