Video: How urban transport strategies reduce traffic congestion

﻿Hi, I'm Miss Goacher and welcome to today's lesson. Our focus for today is going to be the urban transport strategies that are used to reduce traffic congestion. We'll be looking at a range of different strategies across the world, with a little focus on our chosen UK urban area of Liverpool. You're going to need as normal a pen and some paper. So if you need to pause the video and go and get those, please feel free to do that, before we begin the lesson. So we're going to start the lesson today by looking at a skills task. On the screen you have got a map that shows you the number of deaths, from air pollution in 2017. First thing I'm going to look at, is this key that goes along the bottom of the map here. This shows us based on colours the number of deaths that have happened from air pollution. This is a choropleth map and choropleth maps are based around shades of colours that show us different data. We can see that the darker greens on this map, show us higher figures, and the lighter blues on this map and the whites, show us lower figures. Your task is to describe the distribution of deaths caused by air pollution. And I want you to look very carefully at the areas of the world that might have high numbers of deaths or low numbers of deaths. That keyword distribution is basically asking us where those deaths are. Your success criteria very clearly states, that you need to identify an area with high deaths, and an area with low deaths. Try and use some compass directions and use data from the key. Can you name continents and countries, and can you use a specific figures to help you with your description? Pause the video at this point to have a go at this task, before we move on and look through the answer together. So let's look through the answers together. Have a look down the list that's on the screen and see whether you have got, any of these descriptive phrases. You would get a mark for naming the location around the world and a mark for the number. So you can see the first idea suggests there are a high number of deaths in China and India. That will be one mark, for talking about the trend and the location, and the second mark comes from the figure. So between 500,000 and 1 million. The second statement says there are a lower number of deaths in Western Europe, a mark again for the trend and the location. Between 10,000 and 25,000, a mark there for the data. Asia has the highest number of deaths, one mark. With many countries over 50,000, another mark. Many countries in Northern Africa, e.g. Algeria and Morocco, have lower death rates, one mark. Followed by between 10,000 and 25,000 for the second mark. And finally, the USA and Nigeria, have the second highest totals of deaths, one mark, between 100,000 to 500,000, the second mark. You may have slightly different ideas to what's on the screen, but if you need to borrow anything, please feel free to pause the video and pop some ideas down. So let's move on to looking at this issue of traffic congestion in urban areas. You can see on the screen that there are three particular categories of impacts that we need to be aware of. Traffic congestion can cause lots of different issues. But environmentally, it can cause problems with air pollution, and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Economically, it can lead to people being late for work or deliveries being delayed, which loses income. And socially, there can be a higher chance of accidents or health issues, related to poor air quality. You saw in the map, in that first task, the number of premature or early deaths, linked to poor air quality. In the World Health Organisation estimates that 4.2 million people die early, each year around the world linked to poor air quality and air pollution. Knowing what the issues are and the impacts are of traffic congestion, helps us to understand more, about why strategies are being put into place in urban areas, all around the world to try and deal with this problem. At this point in the lesson, we want to pause and we want to see what we've learned. You can see that there are six statements on the screen. These are all impacts from traffic congestion. And what I want you to do, is I want you to put them into the correct category. So which of those statements is a social impact, which of them is an economic impact, and which of them is an environmental impact? See what you can pick out, see which ones you can categorise? Pause the video, pop some ideas down, and when you resume, we'll go through the answers together. So did you get these correct answers? Statements one and three, increased air pollution and increased greenhouse gas emissions were environmental. Statements three and six, So delayed deliveries and people may be late to work, was economic. And statements two and four, a higher chance of accidents and health issues related to poor air quality, was social impacts. Check that you've got these right, check that you've got them noted down. These will be really important, later on in the lesson to be able to refer back to. So our job today is really to focus on the strategies that can be used to reduce the traffic congestion in urban areas, and therefore reduce the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with it. You can see on the screen that our first strategy is using public transport. Using public transport instead of travelling by car, means that we reduce many of those environmental impacts. We can reduce the number of cars that are on the road, and we can also reduce traffic jams, and travel times. Each of these would support, reducing those impacts economically and socially and environmentally. Think about the urban area where you might live or live nearby, and think about the public transport system that's in place there. You may think about our capital city, London, and how the underground, as a public transport system, takes up to 3 million people, off the roads, every day. This is a really important and simple strategy that can be very effective at reducing that traffic congestion. Make sure that you've got some of these ideas popped down, so that you can refer back to these later on. Our second strategy is managing traffic flow. There are four different methods, on the screen at the moment, about how we can manage traffic congestion, and manage traffic flow. Ring roads can be used to reduce the amount of traffic within the centre. Bus priority lanes mean that buses can get from A to Z much quicker, without queuing or being stuck in traffic jams. Congestion charges discourage people from driving in certain zones of an urban area, and pedestrianisation and cycle lanes, discourage people using cars in certain areas, and also getting out and being active. Again, you may think about how each of these four methods, are used in an urban area nearby. The image on the screen shows you how the ring road, takes people eastern-south and west around the centre of this particular urban area. Bus priority lanes are quite easy to instal in urban areas and again can encourage people to use that public transport linking to our previous strategy. Congestion charges can be seen in some urban areas such as London, but people are charged to go into the city centre. In pedestrianisation and cycle lanes, are now very popular methods that local councils might use to get people out of their cars and using other modes of transport. Again, at this point, I would double check that you've got some of these ideas popped down, so that you can refer back to them, later in the lesson. So let's pause the lesson at this point to see what we've learned so far. Each of those four statements on the screen has got an error in it. So your job, is to read through those statements, and to identify where the error is. Can you fix it? Can you pick out where the problem is? Pause the video to see whether you can do that, before we continue together. So this is where our errors were. Statement one read, the pedestrianisation is a form of public transport. The error is, that it's not a form of public transport. Pedestrianisation is about, putting in options for people to walk and safely walk around urban areas. Statement two read that, congestion charges encourage people to drive in the city centre. The big error there, was they don't encourage people, they actually discourage people. Statement three read that, bus priority lines mean journey times can be extended. The error there was they're not extended, they're actually reduced and statement four read that, ring roads are built through the centre of urban areas to reduce traffic. And again, the error there, was they're not built through the centre, they're built around the edge of urban areas. Check that you've got those correct. Pause the video if you need to, before we continue. So we've looked at some strategies so far, and at this point in the lesson, I want us to be able to link this to our chosen UK urban area of Liverpool. Liverpool has several different strategies that they use to reduce traffic congestion. But these two particular examples on the screen, are great examples of how they're trying to manage their traffic congestion. The Liverpool City Bikes scheme was set up to reduce the amount of cars that are in the city centre. You can pick a bike up anywhere and drop it off, at so many different locations across the city, which is encouraging people, to pay a small amount of money, to hire those bicycles to get from A to B. The second strategy that Liverpool have used, has proved to be very successful, is their integrated public transport. You may have seen this in a previous lesson, in this unit. But, Merseytravel, run an integrated public transport that links together the ferries, the trains and the buses in the city and encourages people to use those more frequently. It's much easier and much quicker to travel around Liverpool, using those different forms of transport. You can buy a travel card, that allows you to travel on each of those different forms of transport, which makes it much easier for those people in Liverpool. So we've looked at so far, those different strategies that can be used to reduce traffic congestion. The use of managing your public transport to reduce people on the roads, and the different ways of managing traffic through your urban area, from ring roads, all the way through to pedestrianisation. In Liverpool, these two examples, are great examples of what can be done to try and reduce that traffic congestion. So we'll move on at this point to see, what we can say about these two particular, types of management in Liverpool. You've got a table on the screen and all that I want you to do is think back to those two strategies. The Liverpool City Bikes and the Merseytravel integrated transport. Can you pop in each side of that table, some features of both of those strategies? Can you remember what each of those strategies did, and how they helped to reduce that traffic congestion? If you can, challenge yourself to also explain the benefits of each of these features. Pause the video, see what you can pop down, and we'll go through this together. So you can see on the screen that I've pop some ideas in either side of the table of what each of those strategies look like. The Liverpool City Bikes scheme, the bikes can be dropped off across the city, which makes it easier to use. It reduces car use as there are cycle lanes which encourage the use of bicycles. It can be a social activity, which is a great social advantage. And it's better for the environment as greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. But the Merseytravel integrated transport system, you can buy one travel card that allows you to use all three types of transport. It makes it easier to move around the city. People may save time using these forms of transport. and it's much better for the environment, as fewer cars are on the road, therefore, we have better air quality and you reduce those impacts of greenhouse gas emissions, which we looked at the beginning of the lesson. Again, pause yourself at this point, check that you've got some of those ideas pop down, and then we'll continue together. So our main task today, is a six mark question. And this question asks us to make reference to a named example and explain how urban transport strategies, can reduce traffic congestion. With reference to a named example, your example there would be Liverpool, so you can pop in and reference to the City Bikes scheme or the integrated transport. And for your explanation of how urban transport strategies, can reduce traffic congestion, you should be picking out two clear ideas. Remember what we've looked at so far today, you could refer to ring roads, bus priority lanes, congestion charges, pedestrianisation, encouraging public transport use. Remember those development phrases. How can you make sure you've explained your ideas? Use those phrases on the screen that say this means that, which means that, this leads to. Each of those will help you to make sure that you're able to say, exactly how, your strategy is reducing that traffic congestion. Pause the video and give yourself seven or eight minutes to have a go answering this question, and when you resume, we'll go through the ideas together. So on the screen, there's a model answer. You can see where the marks have come from in this model answer. Paragraph one says, one urban transport strategy that is used to reduce traffic congestion, is increasing the use of public transport. There's our first mark. We've talked about strategy. This reduces the amount of cars on the road. There's our first idea, which means that congestion is reduced. There is our second developed idea. The second paragraph reads, another urban transport strategies is the use of cycle lanes, first mark. In Liverpool, the City Bikes scheme, is available across the city. There's another mark for talking about somewhere specific and that's where we've referred to our named example. Meaning that, people are encouraged to use the bikes rather than their cars, which reduces congestion. We've developed our ideas at that point, which gives us that mark. Check whether you have done that. Have you talked about a specific strategy? Have you developed your ideas using one of those phrases? And have you referred to a named example in Liverpool that helps you to support your ideas? You could have also used reference to ring roads, integrated public transport, with reference to Merseytravel. Bus priority lanes and congestion charges. So if you did refer to any of those, make sure, that you've then, developed those ideas, using those phrases, which means, this means, leading to. That brings us to the end of the lesson. Well done, for some fantastic work today. You've been able to go over, all of the impacts that traffic congestion brings to urban areas, the social impacts linked to health, the economic impacts linked to being late to work or deliveries being delayed, and the environmental impacts linked to air pollution and increased greenhouse gas emissions. Being able to now talk about those different methods that are used to increase public transport or used to reduce that traffic congestion, is really important. So make sure that you can refer back to things like ring roads, bus priority lanes, congestion charges, pedestrianisation, cycle lanes, integrated public transport. Keep those notes really safe, and make sure that you do the quiz that's associated with this lesson to show yourself what you've learned, and also to show us what you've learned. You may ask a parent or carer to share your work on one of our social media platforms. But give yourself a pat on the back for some great work today.

Exit Quiz: How urban transport strategies reduce traffic congestion

Completed: How urban transport strategies reduce traffic congestion

This lesson looks at the strategies used in Liverpool to reduce traffic congestion, with focus given to Liverpool City Bikes, pedestrianisation and park and ride schemes.

Geography

How urban transport strategies reduce traffic congestion

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Final Quiz

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