Encouraging car travel doesn’t help the economy – analysis

The paper, ‘The Mobility-Productivity Paradox’, was written by Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, an independent research organisation working on solutions to transport problems. The paradox it explores is both the negative correlations between per capita motor vehicle travel and economic productivity, and the positive correlations between mobility constraints (higher road-use prices or traffic congestion) and productivity.

 

The paper says exploring these relationships contradicts common assumptions that policies and projects that increase travel by road, like road expansion schemes and lower road-user charges, help economic development. It says there are many reasons for this, such as the fact that policies that increase mobility tend to reduce productivity; travel by motor vehicles is resource-intensive, increasing external costs borne by industries; and vehicle travel increases the portion of household budgets devoted to vehicles and fuel – expenditures that generate low regional employment and business activity.

 

The paper can be found at: https://www.vtpi.org/ITED_paradox.pdf.