Suburban Traffic Management

A mixed bag of both public and private initiatives is being pursued in the battle to head off suburban gridlock. This chapter explores the potential roles of the emerging traffic managment strategies in the struggle against suburban gridlock. The threat of a traffic deluge has prompted an expanding list of suburban municipalities and county governments to introduce wide-ranging legislation aimed at either reducing vehicular trips or off-loading some of the responsibility for financing necessary roadway improvements to the private sector. A more common legislative approach to suburban traffic management has been the exaction of impact fees from developers for financing areawide roadway improvements. The suburban employers and Transportation Management Associations (TMAs) are looking to tactics cheaper and simpler than ridesharing and paratransit programs to ease chronic traffic headaches. Most traffic impact ordinances are targeted at developers of office and industrial complexes, they remove some of the current inequities associated with local roadway tax financing.