Application Paper 1: Application & Reflection on Creative and Critical Thinking

Traffic congestion in Toronto downtown Application Lets start by analyzing the cause1 of the problem. Why is there traffic congestion? Its because there are more cars than roads can handle. The main reason for this is that construction and roadwork is clogging up the citys roads2. It turns out the construction phases are cyclical. On an average, roads of a neighborhood are repaired every five years. Also, The Harper governments stimulus funds, as well as ongoing increases in the citys water rates, have boosted budgets for roadwork and water-infrastructure repair to unprecedented levels(Lorinc 2010)3. The periodic repairs cant be avoided but they can be planned for. A system can be put in place to reduce traffic during the construction season. An example of such a system is explored in the section below. Traffic congestion4 is a bandwidth issue. It occurs when there are more cars than the roads were designed to handle. We can look at parallel industries that have to deal with limited resources to manage a large customer base. Cell phone service carriers fit this model. The largest carriers still have limited bandwidth but have millions of customers. Herere some of the restrictions put in place by the carriers to prevent bandwidth clogging. 1. Talk time is limited to a number of minutes every month. 2. Minutes are free during non-peak hours (weekends and holidays i.e. when businesses are closed). 3. Customers are charged heavily for exceeding their monthly quota of minutes. 4. Unused minutes carry forward. Drawing on the above model, car trips (CT henceforth) can be thought of as the minutes for Torontos traffic plan. As per this model, you would be able to drive your car downtown and back a limited number of times a week before youd have to pay. For example, a weekly plan would get you four CTs ensuring you either pay or use the public transit at least once a week. CTs on weekends would be free and like unused minutes, unused CTs would carry forward every week. CTs would also be linked to TTC tokens. For example, each CT could be exchanged for two TTC tokens giving the consumer the option to use TTC instead of driving to work. Tollbooths would have to be constructed at major entry points to downtown. Owners would be issued electronic toll collection passes (like the EZ-pass used in the United States) to debit CTs as they enter downtown. Downtown is the heart of the city5 and traffic is the blood that flows through it. Excessive traffic can lead to congestion causing a heart attack and essentially bringing the city to a stand still. Delving into the metaphor, lets look at ways a heart attack can be prevented. For example, by a. Following a healthy diet and exercising.

Application Paper 1: Application & Reflection on Creative and Critical Thinking

b. c. d. e. f. Going for regular checkups (ECGs and Treadmill tests) Being aware of family history of heart disease Not neglecting symptoms (Shortness of breath, general weakness) Electing to undergo heart surgery before its too late (Angioplasty in case of partial blockages and bypass surgery for massive blockages) Taking appropriate medication (blood thinners)

Analyzing the metaphor, these solutions to the traffic congestion come to mind a. Traffic regulations that would reduce traffic density (blood thinners). These could take the form of the cell phone model described above. b. Attending to choke points by adding/removing signals and disallowing parking of vehicles in these areas (Angioplasty). c. Creating alternate routes by adding highways or underpasses to navigate traffic around the choke points (Bypass surgery). d. Being aware of the periodic construction cycles that cause traffic congestion and taking preemptive measures to prevent choke points (Family history). e. Regularly monitoring traffic density in the city and identifying potential choke points (health check ups). Each of these steps, once implemented, would work towards alleviating the traffic concerns of the city.

Reflection I chose the following three techniques in the application part of my paper 1. The 5 Why? process - Before trying to come up with a solution, it is important to understand the problem. The 5Why? technique is a great tool to get to the root cause of the problem. 2. Stretch Benchmarking When facing a problem, it is very useful to look at models of companies that are competitors or are in a relatable domain and face similar constraints, but are operating successfully. Looking at the cell phone model, I was able to come up with the concept of Car Trips. 3. Creative Metaphors Using metaphors helps you gain a perspective on solutions that other approaches dont offer. On the flipside, it also throws up solutions that you should ignore. I found the Heart metaphor to be surprisingly useful. Creative thinking aids leaders in approaching complex problems from fresh and multiple perspectives. It also helps them challenge assumptions, pre-conceived notions, which act as barriers to creative problem solving. Creative thinking is becoming increasingly important in a world where leaders are facing situations where history and past experience are no longer the most useful tools. The use of creative thinking often results in newer business models that are more robust than conventional ones. The ideas can be used to solve long-standing problems. On the other hand, these ideas generally create disagreement and are difficult to sell. If not followed by careful analysis and implementation, the ideas can fail and cause loss of money as well as reputation.

Application Paper 1: Application & Reflection on Creative and Critical Thinking

Appendix 1. This section uses the 5 WHY? technique to get to the root cause of the problem. This should ideally be one of the first techniques to be used while analyzing a problem. Using this technique, we learnt that one of the main reasons for congestion is construction activity that occurs in phases. The research also showed that this phase of construction is somewhat excessive owing to the funds available from increased water rates and the stimulus from the government 2. Lorinc, John (2010) Toronto traffic congestion is a perfect (dust) storm, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/toronto-traffic-congestion-is-aperfect-dust-storm/article1724704/ 3. Lorinc, John (2010) Toronto traffic congestion is a perfect (dust) storm, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/toronto-traffic-congestion-is-aperfect-dust-storm/article1724704/ 4. This section uses the stretch benchmarking technique of critical thinking. Here Ive referenced the cell phone/carrier model to come up with a similar plan for managing the traffic. The idea for the cell phone/carrier model came to mind when I framed traffic as a bandwidth issue. The bandwidth for cell phone carriers is limited. If all the users started placing calls at the exact same time, the carrier would be overwhelmed. But this doesnt happen thanks to the restrictions the carrier puts in place. Ive suggested similar restrictions to prevent traffic congestion. 5. Here, the creative metaphor technique is used. The human heart seemed like a close metaphor for the center of the city. The traffic that flows in and out of it seemed analogous to the blood. This naturally led to the correlation between traffic congestion and a heart attack. I was surprised to see that a lot of the suggestions for preventing a heart attack lent themselves nicely to the solution for traffic congestion as well. The bypass surgery, for example, literally means making a new path (road) for blood to flow.