“The cost of congestion: life and resources lost”
Courtesy of IMCO
Mexican cities do not measure the effects that vehicular congestion has on the population, so the inhabitants pay the high costs generated by this problem due to the lack of public policies and investment to guarantee better public transport services.
This translates into inequalities for citizens: public transport users lose 69 billion pesos in income opportunities, while those who use cars lose 25 billion pesos.
The study, The cost of congestion: life and resources lost, by the IMCO and SinTrafica , uses the latter’s unique network of big data, collecting information on traffic conditions in real time through sensors, to analyze the social and economic impact of vehicular congestion in the 32 most economically active cities in the country — the first study of its kind in the country.
Results:
- Congestion in 32 cities costs 94 billion pesos a year, the equivalent of three times the projected investment for Mexico City in public transport from 2018 to 2024.
- Costs contribute to social inequality. Public transport users lose 69 billion pesos annually at the time of entry, almost three times more compared to those who use cars, who lose 25 billion pesos.
- In terms of time, the cost of congestion is an average of 100 hours per year per person: public transport users lose 118 hours a year, while those who use cars lose 71 hours.
- The Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico, Monterrey, Guadalajara and Puebla – Tlaxcala are the cities with the highest cost in vehicular congestion.
In Mexico, the majority of the population uses public transportation (TP) or walks, but local governments do not allocate resources in the same proportion. Although the cities received 57 billion pesos from the metropolitan fund in 2016, 18 of the 32 cities analyzed did not invest anything in public transport.
- For vehicles, they invest 47% of the budget allocated to automotive mobility, when just 25% of the population uses it.
- For public transport, only 1.2% of the budget allocated to mobility is allocated, even though it is used by 39% of the population. Similar proportions can be seen in almost every city in the country.
See the full report, including policy suggestions, here (in Spanish).