Developing causal loop diagram towards understanding the impact of traffic demand on the traffic congestion.

Today, urban congestion is worsening in many countries as a result of population growth, economic growth, private car ownership, urbanization, housing development, and employment opportunities. It is very important to understand what factors cause this traffic congestion. Thus, this paper discussed on how travel demand strategies contribute to traffic congestion in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Using a causal loop diagram (CLD), a hypothetical framework was developed to represent the causality of connected variables in four subsectors: transport demand, transport supply, transport system, and modal share in traffic congestion based on various reports from government agencies and existing literature reviews. A conceptual structure of CLD allows the modeler to understand the dynamic relationship between variables found in the complex transportation systems. The CLD will be used as a basis for developing a dynamic simulation model in future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]