Behavioral Responses to Traffic Congestion – Findings from Paris, São Paulo and Mumbai

Abstract

This paper focuses on the impacts of traffic congestion in the daily life of metropolitan motorized households. It is based on a doctoral dissertation defended in 2012 which studied three mega cities: Paris in France, São Paulo in Brazil and Mumbai (ex-Bombay) in India. A stated-adaptation survey (simulation game) was conducted in 2009-2010 to identify behavioural responses to traffic congestion and to estimate the threshold of household tolerance to congestion in the three regions. A universal set of fifteen responses was available to households in the three regions. Respondents first selected marginal adjustments then behavioural alterations. They managed to preserve their activity pattern thanks to a few marginal adjustments until they reached a threshold and started to alter their behaviour. The threshold was almost the same from one region to another. It fluctuated around 30 additional minutes of travel time. This result was consistent with the Zahavi's conjecture of travel time budget stability.