Measuring the economic costs of traffic congestion

Abstract

The main concern of this research is to examines traffic congestion costs related with the road passenger transportation. With the rapid urbanization, it is evident that commercial and socio economic activity tending to centralize only in few major cities in a country. This has led to increase in the number of the commuters daily traveling to the cities. Also the economy grows and real income of household & vehicle population also increasing. Those things are creating a major issue of congestion, especially within urban cities. Road traffic congestion interrupts and reduces productivity level and it is a symbol of economic depression. This research presents the complete methodological process from data collection to analysis of main two cost factors of road traffic congestion. Those cost factors are workforce productivity time loss & excess fuel energy consumption/ operating cost. The most important aspect of this study is that it provides a measure of the real monetary cost of congestion to local or regional economies.