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Effects of the Los Angeles transit strike on highway congestion

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  • Lo, Shih-Che
  • Hall, Randolph W.

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the effect of the Los Angeles transit strike on highway congestion through analysis of highway sensor data, using both a before-and-after comparison, and a control group comparison. We found that average 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. traffic speeds declined by as much as 20% during the strike, and the average length of the rush period increased by as much as 200%, even though increases in traffic were small, despite the fact that transit riders constitute a small fraction of the traveling population. Speeds declined the most at locations upstream from the places where queues normally end. We believe that highways are especially susceptible to congestion during strikes because travelers have little opportunity to adjust and equilibrate their travel patterns, as is possible during ordinary periods of traffic growth.

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  • Lo, Shih-Che & Hall, Randolph W., 2006. "Effects of the Los Angeles transit strike on highway congestion," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 903-917, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:40:y:2006:i:10:p:903-917
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    Cited by:

    1. Adler, Martin W. & van Ommeren, Jos N., 2016. "Does public transit reduce car travel externalities? Quasi-natural experiments' evidence from transit strikes," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 106-119.
    2. Ali, Yousaf & Bilal, Muhammad & Sabir, Muhammad, 2021. "Impacts of transport strike on Pakistan economy: An inoperability Input-Output model (IIOM) approach," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. van Exel, N.J.A. & Rietveld, P., 2009. "When strike comes to town... anticipated and actual behavioural reactions to a one-day, pre-announced, complete rail strike in the Netherlands," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 526-535, June.
    4. Nguyen-Phuoc, Duy Q. & Currie, Graham & De Gruyter, Chris & Young, William, 2018. "Transit user reactions to major service withdrawal – A behavioural study," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 29-37.
    5. Daniel Albalate & Xavier Fageda, 2019. "Congestion, Road Safety, and the Effectiveness of Public Policies in Urban Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-21, September.
    6. Shanjiang Zhu & David M. Levinson, 2012. "Disruptions to Transportation Networks: A Review," Transportation Research, Economics and Policy, in: David M. Levinson & Henry X. Liu & Michael Bell (ed.), Network Reliability in Practice, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 5-20, Springer.
    7. Chikaraishi, Makoto & Garg, Prateek & Varghese, Varun & Yoshizoe, Kazuki & Urata, Junji & Shiomi, Yasuhiro & Watanabe, Ryuki, 2020. "On the possibility of short-term traffic prediction during disaster with machine learning approaches: An exploratory analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 91-104.
    8. Stefan Bauernschuster & Timo Hener & Helmut Rainer, 2017. "When Labor Disputes Bring Cities to a Standstill: The Impact of Public Transit Strikes on Traffic, Accidents, Air Pollution, and Health," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 1-37, February.
    9. Nazmul Arefin Khan & Muhammad Ahsanul Habib, 2018. "Evaluation of Preferences for Alternative Transportation Services and Loyalty towards Active Transportation during a Major Transportation Infrastructure Disruption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, June.
    10. Nima Golshani & Ehsan Rahimi & Ramin Shabanpour & Kouros Mohammadian & Joshua Auld & Hubert Ley, 2020. "Passengers' Travel Behavior in Response to Unplanned Transit Disruptions," Papers 2001.01718, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2020.
    11. Duy Q. Nguyen-Phuoc & William Young & Graham Currie & Chris Gruyter, 2020. "Traffic congestion relief associated with public transport: state-of-the-art," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 455-481, June.
    12. Anastasia Pnevmatikou & Matthew Karlaftis & Konstantinos Kepaptsoglou, 2015. "Metro service disruptions: how do people choose to travel?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 42(6), pages 933-949, November.
    13. Emily Moylan & Fletcher Foti & Alexander Skabardonis, 2016. "Observed and simulated traffic impacts from the 2013 Bay Area Rapid Transit strike," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 162-179, March.
    14. Spyropoulou, Ioanna, 2020. "Impact of public transport strikes on the road network: The case of Athens," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 651-665.
    15. Younes, Hannah & Nasri, Arefeh & Baiocchi, Giovanni & Zhang, Lei, 2019. "How transit service closures influence bikesharing demand; lessons learned from SafeTrack project in Washington, D.C. metropolitan area," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 83-92.
    16. Martin W. Adler & Jos N. van Ommeren, 2015. "Does Public Transit reduce Car Travel Externalities?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 15-011/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.

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