{"title":"Urban traffic congestion in twelve large metropolitan cities: A thematic analysis of local news contents, 2009–2018","authors":"Zhiran Huang , Becky P.Y. Loo","doi":"10.1080/15568318.2022.2076633","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The urban population are increasingly suffering from rising transport costs, worsening air quality, longer commuting time, and traffic congestion. Although much scholarly attention has focused on modeling urban traffic congestion, news contents about traffic jam have rarely been examined systematically. This study selects 12 large metropolitan cities across Asia (Beijing, Bengaluru, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Singapore), Oceania (Auckland and Sydney), Europe (London) and North America (Los Angeles and Toronto) for an in-depth content analysis. More than 40,000 pieces of congestion-related articles in the 2009–2018 period have been identified in the local news media of these cities. We apply techniques of text analytics to analyze underlying themes in relation to sustainable transport and congestion-mitigation measures. Also, a sentiment analysis is conducted to examine the level of frustration expressed. Results show that traffic congestion is no longer perceived to be primarily an economic issue. Concerns over the environmental impacts of traffic congestion were increasingly discussed. Based on the content analysis, cities in Asia mentioned a lot about congestion-related PM<sub>2.5</sub> pollution and climate change was a recurrent theme among non-Asian cities. Economic cost related to traffic congestion has received much more attention in high-income cities. With regard to congestion mitigation measures, terms related to promoting public and active transport was the most popular, followed by restriction and regulation measures, and then intelligent transport system (ITS) or smart mobility adoption. It is noteworthy that road capacity expansion has attracted the lowest coverage. Generally, high-density cities discussed more about public and active transport in alleviating traffic jams; and police enforcement was seen as important in tackling traffic congestion across all cities. In relation to the sentiment, there is a positive association between the overall traffic congestion level and the congestion frustration level expressed in local news.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47824,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Sustainable Transportation","volume":"17 6","pages":"Pages 592-614"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"5","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Sustainable Transportation","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S1556831822007067","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 5
Abstract
The urban population are increasingly suffering from rising transport costs, worsening air quality, longer commuting time, and traffic congestion. Although much scholarly attention has focused on modeling urban traffic congestion, news contents about traffic jam have rarely been examined systematically. This study selects 12 large metropolitan cities across Asia (Beijing, Bengaluru, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Singapore), Oceania (Auckland and Sydney), Europe (London) and North America (Los Angeles and Toronto) for an in-depth content analysis. More than 40,000 pieces of congestion-related articles in the 2009–2018 period have been identified in the local news media of these cities. We apply techniques of text analytics to analyze underlying themes in relation to sustainable transport and congestion-mitigation measures. Also, a sentiment analysis is conducted to examine the level of frustration expressed. Results show that traffic congestion is no longer perceived to be primarily an economic issue. Concerns over the environmental impacts of traffic congestion were increasingly discussed. Based on the content analysis, cities in Asia mentioned a lot about congestion-related PM2.5 pollution and climate change was a recurrent theme among non-Asian cities. Economic cost related to traffic congestion has received much more attention in high-income cities. With regard to congestion mitigation measures, terms related to promoting public and active transport was the most popular, followed by restriction and regulation measures, and then intelligent transport system (ITS) or smart mobility adoption. It is noteworthy that road capacity expansion has attracted the lowest coverage. Generally, high-density cities discussed more about public and active transport in alleviating traffic jams; and police enforcement was seen as important in tackling traffic congestion across all cities. In relation to the sentiment, there is a positive association between the overall traffic congestion level and the congestion frustration level expressed in local news.
期刊介绍:
The International Journal of Sustainable Transportation provides a discussion forum for the exchange of new and innovative ideas on sustainable transportation research in the context of environmental, economical, social, and engineering aspects, as well as current and future interactions of transportation systems and other urban subsystems. The scope includes the examination of overall sustainability of any transportation system, including its infrastructure, vehicle, operation, and maintenance; the integration of social science disciplines, engineering, and information technology with transportation; the understanding of the comparative aspects of different transportation systems from a global perspective; qualitative and quantitative transportation studies; and case studies, surveys, and expository papers in an international or local context. Equal emphasis is placed on the problems of sustainable transportation that are associated with passenger and freight transportation modes in both industrialized and non-industrialized areas. All submitted manuscripts are subject to initial evaluation by the Editors and, if found suitable for further consideration, to peer review by independent, anonymous expert reviewers. All peer review is single-blind. Submissions are made online via ScholarOne Manuscripts.