Socio Economic Valuation of Traffic Delays

Travel time is one of the largest categories of transport costs, and time savings are often claimed to be the greatest benefit of transport projects such as roadway and public transit improvements. Therefore the study of impact of delay at intersections in monetary terms is important. It has been a normal tendency that, when the vehicles are waiting for a 'GO' signal at the intersection, the drivers normally keep the engines of their vehicles “ON” and these results in extra fuel consumption. Small amount of fuel wasted, aggravated over number of cycles per day, number of days per month become a huge quantity. The delay time is such that the cost incurred on the travel time loss is greater as it includes travel time costs. This is an opportunity cost which also includes travel time variability losses arising from unpredictability of the journey time and vehicle operating costs which includes fuel loss that arise due to the idling of vehicles. Along with this, there is another form of cost associated, which is environmental externality. This refers to the cost due to increased emissions of pollutants due to slower speed and stop-and-go situation of the vehicles in traffic congested condition. Thus total cost incurred will be greater. This paper discusses the estimates in monetary terms, the cost of traffic delay-increased travel time, increased fuel consumption and increased pollution, taking one of the corridors in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, India as a case study.