This Policy Brief has been prepared on behalf of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).

 

Three decades of efforts to address traffic congestion in the U.S. 422 Corridor of Southeast Pennsylvania have been met with limited success.
Three broad types of responses have been used:

​

1. Investments in new highway and public transit capacity

2. Traffic incident management (TIM) and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) measures, including variable message signs, roving tow trucks, and online and smart-phone traffic information systems

3. Transportation demand management (TDM) strategies

 

This three-pronged approach has helped keep traffic congestion from becoming worse than it currently is, but congestion remains a problem.

​

This policy brief presents short-, medium-, and long-term recommendations that transportation analysts and practitioners with Temple University’s Center for Sustainable Communities, GVF, and CFA Consultants have identified after a detailed study of the Corridor, the 422 Expressway, and planners’ most effective TDM efforts of the past thirty years. Some of the recommendations are straightforward, inexpensive, and simple to implement.