Mobility and congestion in urban India

This paper uses a popular web mapping and transportation
service to generate information for more than 22 million
counterfactual trip instances in 154 large Indian cities. It
then develops a methodology to estimate robust indices of
mobility for these cities. The estimation allows for an exact
decomposition of overall mobility into uncongested mobility
and the congestion delays caused by traffic. The paper
first documents wide variation in mobility across Indian
cities. It then shows that this variation is driven primarily
by uncongested mobility. Finally, the paper investigates
correlates of mobility and congestion. Denser and more
populated cities are slower, in part because of congestion,
especially close to their centers. Urban economic development
is generally correlated with better uncongested
mobility, worse congestion, and overall with better mobility.