passengers transport

part [2] Production-consumption

households consumption/trans L1

Economic and environmental impacts of traffic jams

The increase in the number of vehicles on the road and the preferred use of the road for goods transport and passenger travel result in a progressive saturation of the road network, resulting in particular in more frequent and longer traffic jams. In addition to the immediate impacts on drivers (time wasted, stress, aggressiveness), congestion of the road network also has significant economic and environmental costs. Formation of traffic jams Traffic jams occur when the road capacity is saturated owing to a high number of vehicles passing the same point at the same time. They generally occur in the morning and evening (structural queues) and sometimes during the day (incident-related queues, due to road works, accidents, severe weather conditions, etc.). Location and extent of disruptions In the Walloon Region, traffic jams mainly occur in and around the large conurbations (Mons, Charleroi, Lige) and on the main roads leading to Brussels. The urbanisation of rural areas close to towns has increased the need for travel, in particular between home and work. According to a recent survey of commuters(1), 126,500 Walloons go to Brussels to work each day. The extent of the disruptions can be assessed on the basis of the proportion of road sections which are saturated. In 2006, 700 km of motorways in Belgium (out of a total of 1,763 km) were over 75 % saturated(2). The distances in question are increasing(3): 521 km in 2000, 178 km in 1990 and only 85 km in 1985. Impacts on the environment and on health Uneven driving in slow traffic leads to increases in fuel consumption (repeated accelerations at low speed) and pollutant emissions. In traffic jams, in addition to the stress, the poorer air circulation around the vehicles increases the pollutants concentrations inside. In town, traffic jams reduce the commercial speed of public transport, making it less efficient and thus less attractive. Cost of traffic jams A full assessment of the cost of traffic jams would require the impacts on the economy, the environment and health all to be taken into account, which is not yet possible with current data and models. There are, however, a number of estimates, based inter alia on the loss of productivity resulting from employees arriving late, obtained by multiplying the hours of jams by the average hourly wage. The main information currently available is presented in the table hereunder :

Source European Environment Agency European Environment Agency SPF Mobilit et Transports KUL (Transport & Mobility research department)

INDICATOR Average cost of traffic jams Cost of road congestion as a percentage of GDP Total cost of traffic jams Total cost of traffic jams (motorways only) Hours wasted in queues Hours wasted in queues Cost of one hour wasted per lorry stuck in traffic jams

VALUE 1 to 2 / km 2% 154 million 114 million 250 million 9 million/year 6 to 9 million 43

YEAR

LEVEL Europe Europe

2003

Belgium Belgium Flanders Region Belgium http://environnement.wallonie.be

Verkeercentrum Vlaanderen (cited by www.trends.be) Total cost of traffic jams Transport Mobility Leuven (KUL) VRIND (statistics for Flanders Region) Institut Transport routier et Logistique Belgique (formerly ITR) Verkeercentrum Vlaanderen (cited by www.trends.be) Verkeercentrum Vlaanderen (cited by www.trends.be)

2007

Flanders Region Belgium Flanders Region Flanders Region

Cost of one hour wasted per lorry stuck 45 in traffic jams Cost of one hour wasted per car stuck in traffic jams 8.25

69
(1) SPF Economie, PME, Classes moyennes et Energie (2007) (2) This level of saturation corresponds to a traffic density greater than 2,000 vehicles per (3) SPF Mobilit et Transports (2007)

hour per carriageway, for an average working day outside July and August.