The Role of City Bypasses in Limiting Transport Congestion on the Example of Starogard Gdański

The problem of congestion is one of the key issues faced by cities. There are many ways to improve the functioning of the city’s road infrastructure, enabling reduction of the congestion level. The proper level of transport infrastructure development is indispensable for the proper functioning of transport, which determines the effective transport service of residents, and thus improves the broadly understood quality of life. The article focuses on the effects possible to achieve thanks to the implementa-tion of investments in road infrastructure with particular emphasis on city bypasses. The example of Starogard Gdański presents the problem of eliminating transit traffic from city centers through the construction of a bypass. The article discusses the results of the experiment carried out to estimate the benefits of the construction of the Starogard Gdański bypass. As part of the experiment, the travel time and fuel consumption were measured during the passage of a passenger car on the route from the planned initial node to the final node of the future bypass. The obtained results were referred to the study of traffic density within DK 22 carried out by GDDKiA Branch in Gdańsk and traffic intensity studies on the intake roads to the city carried out by the Transprojekt Gdańsk design company, which allowed to calculate the level of fuel savings, time and reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, thanks to transfer of transit traffic outside the city limits.