American Economic Review Vol. 101 No. 6 2011

The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities

Gilles Duranton¹; Matthew A. Turner²

¹ Department of Economics, University of Toronto, 150 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G7, Canada, and Centre for Economic Policy Research, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, and Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. · ² Department of Economics, University of Toronto, 150 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G7, Canada.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of lane kilometers of roads on vehicle-kilometers traveled (VKT) in US cities. VKT increases proportionately to roadway lane kilometers for interstate highways and probably slightly less rapidly for other types of roads. The sources for this extra VKT are increases in driving by current residents, increases in commercial traffic, and migration. Increasing lane kilometers for one type of road diverts little traffic from other types of road. We find no evidence that the provision of public transportation affects VKT. We conclude that increased provision of roads or public transit is unlikely to relieve congestion.

DOI

10.1257/aer.101.6.2616

Volume

101

Issue

6

Pages

2616-2652

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

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