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The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities

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  • Gilles Duranton
  • Matthew A. Turner

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between interstate highways and highway vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) in US cities. We find that VKT increases proportionately to highways and identify three important sources for this extra VKT: an increase in driving by current residents; an increase in transportation intensive production activity; and an inflow of new residents. The provision of public transportation has no impact on VKT. We also estimate the aggregate city level demand for VKT and find it to be very elastic. We conclude that an increased provision of roads or public transit is unlikely to relieve congestion and that the current provision of roads exceeds the optimum given the absence of congestion pricing.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Spatial Economics Research Centre, LSE in its series SERC Discussion Papers with number 0030.

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Date of creation: Oct 2009
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Handle: RePEc:cep:sercdp:0030

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Web page: http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/SERC/publications/default.asp

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Keywords: highways; vehicle-kilometres traveled; public transport; congestion;

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References

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  1. Jonathan Leape, 2006. "The London Congestion Charge," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 157-176, Fall.
  2. James H. Stock & Motohiro Yogo, 2002. "Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression," NBER Technical Working Papers 0284, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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  7. Chandra, Amitabh & Thompson, Eric, 2000. "Does public infrastructure affect economic activity?: Evidence from the rural interstate highway system," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 457-490, July.
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  10. Duranton, Gilles & Turner, Matthew A, 2008. "Urban Growth and Transportation," CEPR Discussion Papers 6633, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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  17. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2001. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262232197.
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Citations

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. I-405 Expansion in LA Offers a Case Study of the Fundamental Law of Traffic Congestion
    by Matthew E. Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2010-01-07 01:19:00
  2. Can Improvements in Atlanta's Public Transit Infrastructure Reduce Road Congestion?
    by Matthew Kahn in Environmental and Urban Economics on 2012-07-15 22:15:00
  3. Why new roads do not alleviate congestion
    by Olaf Storbeck in Economics Intelligence on 2011-10-24 21:32:08
  4. Wer Stra�en sät, wird Staus ernten
    by Olaf Storbeck in Handelsblog on 2011-10-19 14:26:40
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
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Cited by:
  1. Martin Koning, 2010. "The Social Cost of Road Congestion in Ile-de-France Region (and France): Empirical Evidences from the Paris Ring-Road," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00467888, HAL.
  2. Quentin David & Renaud Foucart, 2012. "Modal choice and optimal congestion," CREA Discussion Paper Series 12-03, Center for Research in Economic Analysis, University of Luxembourg.
  3. Peter Gordon & Wendell Cox, 2012. "Cities in Western Europe and the United States: do policy differences matter?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 565-594, April.
  4. Gilles Duranton & Peter Morrow & Matthew Turner, 2013. "Roads and Trade: Evidence from the U.S," Working Papers tecipa-479, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
  5. Francisco Gallego & Juan-Pablo Montero & Christian Salas, 2011. "The Effect of Transport Policies on Car Use: Theory and Evidence from Latin American Cities," Documentos de Trabajo 407, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
  6. Catherine Althaus & Lindsay M. Tedds & Allen McAvoy, 2011. "The Feasibility of Implementing a Congestion Charge on the Halifax Peninsula: Filling the "Missing Link" of Implementation," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 37(4), pages 541-561, December.
  7. Rafael Lalive & Simon Luechinger & Armin Schmutzler, 2013. "Does Supporting Passenger Railways Reduce Road Traffic Externalities?," ECON - Working Papers 110, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
  8. Rosa Sanchis-Guarner, 2012. "Driving Up Wages: The Effects of Road Construction in Great Britain," SERC Discussion Papers 0120, Spatial Economics Research Centre, LSE.
  9. Miquel- Àngel Garcia-López, 2012. "Urban spatial structure, suburbanization and transportation in Barcelona," Working Papers 2012/11, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
  10. Miquel- Àngel Garcia-López & Adelheid Holl & Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal, 2013. "Suburbanization and highways: when the romans, the bourbons and the first cars still shape Spanish cities," Working Papers 2013/5, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
  11. Viard, Brian & Fu, Shihe, 2011. "The effect of Beijing’s driving restrictions on pollution and economic activity," MPRA Paper 33009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  12. Ghani, Ejaz & Goswami, Arti Grover & Kerr, William R., 2013. "Highway to success in India : the impact of the golden quadrilateral project for the location and performance of manufacturing," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6320, The World Bank.
  13. Partridge, Mark D. & Rickman, Dan S., 2012. "Integrating regional economic development analysis and land use economics," MPRA Paper 38291, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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