Transportation Demand Management

Because widening a road tends to induce new trips that erode the relief it was meant to bring, while managing existing demand costs less and cuts congestion and emissions without new construction.

Transportation demand management applies strategies such as transit subsidies, congestion pricing, flexible work hours and better cycling and walking infrastructure to reduce or reshape travel demand rather than expand road capacity to meet it. Much of the traffic that fills a widened or new road has been shown to be induced demand, trips that would not otherwise have been made, so congestion on the road tends to return toward its earlier level over time. The term emerged in the United States after the 1973 and 1979 oil price shocks, and both the British government and the United States Federal Highway Administration issued major studies in 2004 supporting the approach.