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Mobility and Congestion in Urban India

  • Prottoy Akbar
  • Victor Couture
  • Gilles Duranton
  • Adam Storeygard
American Economic Review
vol. 113, no. 4, April 2023
(pp. 1083-1111)
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Abstract

We develop a methodology to estimate robust city-level vehicular speed indices, exactly decomposable into uncongested speed and congestion. We apply it to 180 Indian cities using 57 million simulated trips measured by a web mapping service. We verify the reliability of our simulated trips using a number of alternative data sources, including data on actual trips. We find wide variation in speed across cities that is driven more by differences in uncongested speed than congestion. Denser and more populated cities are slower, only in part because of congestion. Urban economic development is correlated with faster speed despite worse congestion.

Citation

Akbar, Prottoy, Victor Couture, Gilles Duranton, and Adam Storeygard. 2023. "Mobility and Congestion in Urban India." American Economic Review, 113 (4): 1083-1111. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20181662

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
  • O18 Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
  • R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
  • R41 Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise