IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/10393.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Unintended Consequences of Curfews on Road Safety

Author

Listed:
  • World Bank
  • Bedoya Arguelles,Guadalupe
  • Dolinger,Amy
  • Dolkart,Caitlin Fitzgerald
  • Legovini,Arianna
  • Sveta Milusheva
  • Marty,Robert Andrew
  • Taniform,Peter Ngwa

Abstract

During COVID-19, curfews spread like wildfire. Although their impact on curbing the spread ofdisease remains to be proven, curfews have the potential to bring about costs to society in multiple domains. This paperinvestigates the impact of curfews on road safety in an urban lower-middle-income setting. It shows that curfewslead to large reductions in crashes during the curfew hours when cars are off the road, but that these reductions can be fully offset by an increase in crashes during heavy traffichours when people rush to get home before the curfew starts. These spillover effects result from a behavioral response tothe curfew—increased driving speed—leading to higher crash rates. These findings forewarn that the use of curfews infuture crises and pandemics should be carefully scrutinized and designed to minimize unintended negative effects.

Suggested Citation

  • World Bank & Bedoya Arguelles,Guadalupe & Dolinger,Amy & Dolkart,Caitlin Fitzgerald & Legovini,Arianna & Sveta Milusheva & Marty,Robert Andrew & Taniform,Peter Ngwa, 2023. "The Unintended Consequences of Curfews on Road Safety," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10393, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10393
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099451204052328998/pdf/IDU10b94e1aa1864314ab41a3d119bb2e9028839.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Onur Altindag & Bilge Erten & Pinar Keskin, 2022. "Mental Health Costs of Lockdowns: Evidence from Age-Specific Curfews in Turkey," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 320-343, April.
    2. van Benthem, Arthur, 2015. "What is the optimal speed limit on freeways?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 44-62.
    3. Jillian B. Carr & Jennifer L. Doleac, 2018. "Keep the Kids Inside? Juvenile Curfews and Urban Gun Violence," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(4), pages 609-618, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lu, Qing-Long & Qurashi, Moeid & Antoniou, Constantinos, 2023. "Simulation-based policy analysis: The case of urban speed limits," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    2. Blesse, Sebastian & Diegmann, André, 2022. "The place-based effects of police stations on crime: Evidence from station closures," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    3. Ariadna García-Prado & Paula González & Yolanda F. Rebollo-Sanz, 2025. "Confinement policies: controlling contagion without compromising mental health," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(33), pages 4844-4860, July.
    4. Gokben Aydilek & Deniz Karaoglan, 2024. "Double Lockdown: Unravelling the Impact of Age-targeted COVID-19 Restrictions on Senior Women’s Health," Working Papers 2024-01, Gebze Technical University, Department of Economics.
    5. Tyndall, Justin, 2021. "Pedestrian deaths and large vehicles," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 26.
    6. Neil McCulloch, 2017. "Energy subsidies, international aid, and the politics of reform," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-174, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Ariadna García-Prado & Paula González & Yolanda F. Rebollo-Sanz, 2024. "Confinement policies: controlling contagion without compromising mental health," Working Papers 24.03, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    8. Filipi Nikol & Karlínová Bára & Krčál Ondřej, 2022. "The disutility of driving below the speed limit on highways," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 22(4), pages 267-277, December.
    9. Geir H. M. Bjertnæs, 2019. "Efficient taxation of fuel and road use," Discussion Papers 905, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    10. Kai Barron & Charles D. H. Parry & Debbie Bradshaw & Rob Dorrington & Pam Groenewald & Ria Laubscher & Richard Matzopoulos, 2024. "Alcohol, Violence, and Injury-Induced Mortality: Evidence from a Modern-Day Prohibition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(4), pages 938-955, July.
    11. Jonathan Colmer & Jennifer L. Doleac, 2023. "Access to guns in the heat of the moment: more restrictive gun laws mitigate the effect of temperature on violence," CEP Discussion Papers dp1934, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. Bonander, Carl & Chauca Strand, Gabriella & Jakobsson, Niklas, 2023. "Direct replication and additional sensitivity analyses for Altindag et al. (2022): A replication report from the Oslo Replication Games," I4R Discussion Paper Series 16, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    13. Molina, Teresa & Cho, Yoon Y., 2024. "The Importance of Existing Social Protection Programs for Mental Health in Pandemic Times," IZA Discussion Papers 16737, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Brodeur, Abel & Wright, Taylor, 2019. "Terrorism, immigration and asylum approval," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 119-131.
    15. Francesco Bogliacino & Cristiano Codagnone & Frans Folkvord & Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva, 2023. "The impact of labour market shocks on mental health: evidence from the Covid-19 first wave," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(3), pages 899-930, October.
    16. Bel, Germà & Holst, Maximilian, 2018. "Evaluation of the impact of Bus Rapid Transit on air pollution in Mexico City," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 209-220.
    17. Quintana-Domeque Climent & Proto Eugenio, 2022. "On the Persistence of Mental Health Deterioration during the COVID-19 Pandemic by Sex and Ethnicity in the UK: Evidence from Understanding Society," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 22(2), pages 361-372, April.
    18. Alcaraz Carrillo de Albornoz, Vicente & Molina Millán, Juan & Lara Galera, Antonio & Muñoz Medina, Belén, 2022. "Road speed limit matters – Are politicians doing the right thing?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    19. Anna Makles & Kerstin Schneider, 2016. "Quiet Please! Adverse Effects of Noise on Child Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 6281, CESifo.
    20. Elvik, Rune, 2018. "How can the notion of optimal speed limits best be applied in urban areas?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 170-177.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10393. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.