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Mobility and Congestion in Urban India

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  • Adam Storeygard
  • Prottoy A. Akbar
  • Victor Couture
  • Giles Duranton

Abstract

We develop a methodology to estimate robust city-level vehicular mobility indices, and apply it to 154 Indian cities using 22 million counterfactual trips measured by a web mapping service. There is wide variation in mobility across cities. An exact decomposition shows this variation is driven more by differences in uncongested mobility than congestion. Under plausible assumptions, a onestandarddeviation improvement in uncongested speed creates much more mobility than optimal congestion pricing. Denser and more populated cities are slower, only in part because of congestion. Urban economic development is correlated with better (uncongested and overall) mobility despite worse congestion.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Storeygard & Prottoy A. Akbar & Victor Couture & Giles Duranton, 2018. "Mobility and Congestion in Urban India," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0829, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    • Handle: RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0829
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    Cited by:

    1. J. Vernon Henderson & Matthew A. Turner, 2020. "Urbanization in the Developing World: Too Early or Too Slow?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 150-173, Summer.
    2. Kala Seetharam Sridhar & Shivakumar Nayka, 2022. "Determinants of Commute Time in an Indian City," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 16(1), pages 49-75, February.
    3. Gallé, Johannes, 2023. "City Shape and Air Pollution," Ruhr Economic Papers 1012, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    4. Panle Jia Barwick & Yanyan Liu & Eleonora Patacchini & Qi Wu, 2019. "Information, Mobile Communication, and Referral Effects," NBER Working Papers 25873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Gilles Duranton & Geetika Nagpal & Matthew A. Turner, 2020. "Transportation Infrastructure in the US," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Analysis and Infrastructure Investment, pages 165-210, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Bas, Maria & Fernandes, Ana & Paunov, Caroline, 2024. "How resilient was trade to COVID-19?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    7. Yizhen Gu & Chang Jiang & Junfu Zhang & Ben Zou, 2021. "Subways and Road Congestion," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 83-115, April.
    8. Antonio Bento & Kevin Roth & Andrew R. Waxman, 2020. "The Value of Urgency: Evidence from Real-Time Congestion Pricing," NBER Working Papers 26956, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Liotta, Charlotte & Viguié, Vincent & Lepetit, Quentin, 2022. "Testing the monocentric standard urban model in a global sample of cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    10. Cong Peng, 2019. "Does e-commerce reduce traffic congestion? Evidence from Alibaba Single Day shopping event," CEP Discussion Papers dp1646, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Henderson, J. Vernon & Nigmatulina, Dzhamilya & Kriticos, Sebastian, 2021. "Measuring urban economic density," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    12. Kirchberger, Martina, 2021. "Measuring internal migration," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. García-Suaza, Andres & Varela, Daniela, 2024. "Nightlight, landcover and buildings: understanding intracity socioeconomic differences," Documentos de Trabajo 21025, Universidad del Rosario.
    14. Peng, Cong, 2019. "Does e-commerce reduce traffic congestion? Evidence from Alibaba Single Day shopping event," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103411, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Paul Blanchard & Douglas Gollin & Martina Kirchberger, 2023. "Perpetual Motion: High-Frequency Human Mobility in Three African Countries," Trinity Economics Papers tep0823, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    16. Ang, Amanda & Christensen, Peter & Vieira, Renato, 2020. "Should congested cities reduce their speed limits? Evidence from São Paulo, Brazil," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    17. Albert Saiz & Luyao Wang, 2023. "Physical geography and traffic delays: Evidence from a major coastal city," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(1), pages 218-243, September.
    18. Panle Jia Barwick & Yanyan Liu & Eleonora Patacchini & Qi Wu, 2023. "Information, Mobile Communication, and Referral Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(5), pages 1170-1207, May.
    19. Brandily, P. & Rauch, F., 2024. "Within‐city roads and urban growth," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122580, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Brooks, Leah & Denoeux, Genevieve, 2022. "What if you build it and they don't come? How the ghost of transit past haunts transit present," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    21. Gabriel Kreindler, 2024. "Peak‐Hour Road Congestion Pricing: Experimental Evidence and Equilibrium Implications," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 92(4), pages 1233-1268, July.
    22. Delventhal, Matthew J. & Kwon, Eunjee & Parkhomenko, Andrii, 2022. "JUE Insight: How do cities change when we work from home?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    23. Santonab Chakraborty & Sayantan Ghosh & Subham Agarwal & Shankar Chakraborty, 2021. "An integrated performance evaluation approach for the Indian smart cities," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 58(4), pages 906-941, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    urban transportation; roads; traffic; determinants of travel speed; cities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

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