Assessing the effect of road infrastructure in relation to traffic jam during rush hour in urban areas.
Abstract
Nowadays one of the bigger problems in cities is the road infrastructure. There have been a lot
of study and research done to find a solution to the problem. In general, there is an economic
issue when countries make an investment in the sector. Most of the studies on road
infrastructure focus on its impact on growth of urban areas. In the past two decade the analytical
literature has grown enormously, with studies carried out using different approaches such as
productivity function (or cost) and growth regressions as well as different variants of those
models (using different date, methods and methodologies), the majority of these studies found
out that road infrastructure has a positive effect on output, productivity or growth rate. (serven,
2008). One of the pioneers was Aschauer (1991) who in his empirical study, provided
substantial evidence that transport is an important determinant of economic performance.
Another example is the study of (Alminas, 2009), who found that transport has contributed to
growth in the Baltic region. Another study on the Spanish plan to extend roads that connect
Spain with other countries concludes that they have a positive impact in terms of Gross
Domestic Product (Martinez-Ruiz, 2012). In a study of the road in the United States, it is
mentioned that many economists believe that the project costs exceed the benefits (Balaker,
2006). However, the traditional model of cost-benefit assessment does not include the impact
of development projects (DeRus, 2008), In these studies focused on growth, we see there is a
bias towards economic rather than social goals. That is why it is important to emphasize the
effect of road infrastructure on development and not just growth.
The road infrastructure being a complex network, connects cities and accommodates human
activities coupling the social, economic and environmental systems the urbanization and
population-growth