Friday, May 28, 2010

Rush-hour traffic

Some cities adopt policies to minimize rush-hour traffic and pollution and encourage the use of commercial transportation. For instance, in São Paulo, Manila [citation needed] and in Mexico City, each vehicle has a specific day of the week in which it is forbidden from traveling the roads during rush hour. The day for each vehicle is taken from the license plate number, and this law is being enforced by traffic police and also by hundreds of strategically positioned traffic cameras backed by computerized image-recognition systems that issue tickets to offending drivers.
In the United States and Canada, different expressways have a special lane (called an "HOV Lane" - High Occupancy Vehicle Lane) that can only be used by cars conveying two (some locations-three) or more people. More so, many major cities have instituted strict parking prohibitions during rush hour on major arterial streets leading to and from the central business district. During designated weekday hours, vehicles parked on these primary routes are subject to prompt ticketing and towing at owner expense. The essence of these restrictions is to make available an additional traffic lane in order to maximize available traffic capacity. Additionally, several cities offer a public telephone service where citizens can arrange rides with others owing to where they live and work. The idea of these policies is to minimize the number of vehicles on the roads and thereby reduce rush-hour traffic intensity.
Metered freeways are also a means for controlling rush hour traffic. In Phoenix, Arizona metered on-ramps have been implemented. During rush hour, traffic signals are used in-line with green lights to allow one car per blink of the light to proceed on to the freeway.

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