Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP7462
Authors: Gilles Duranton; Matthew A. Turner
Abstract: We investigate the relationship between interstate highways and highway vehicle kilometers traveled (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.
Keywords: congestion; highways; public transport; vehicle kilometers traveled
JEL Codes: L91; R41
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Road provision (R42) | Vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) (R48) |
| Length of interstate highways (H54) | Vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) (R48) |
| Stock of roads (R42) | Vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) (R48) |
| Public transportation provision (L91) | Vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) (R48) |
| Current residents driving more (R48) | Vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) (R48) |
| Transportation-intensive production activities increase (L91) | Vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) (R48) |
| Inflow of new residents to areas with better road infrastructure (R23) | Vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) (R48) |