Does Road Traffic Congestion Increase Fuel Consumption of Households in Kathmandu City?

Abstract

The growth of vehicle and road traffic congestion is characteristics of urbanization and urban city and indicators of urban life in developing countries. In Nepal, non-economic factors and non-state factors have accelerated unexpectedly and haphazardly urbanization process, although the country was reengineered into seven provincial federal structure. In this backdrop, this paper empirically examines the growth of traffic congestion and its impact on urban households and livelihood based on 160 vehicle owners and users’ survey at six major traffic routes of two urban cities by applying mixed analytical methods (qualitative cum quantitative), descriptive statistics and multiple regression model. The descriptive statistics result of the study reveals nearly 94 percent acceptance level of vehicle owners and users about the growth of traffic congestion. Despite short distances of the road i.e. 2-4 kilometers and vehicle efficiency, the growth of traffic congestion increases 14036-liters fuel additional consumption. Per month, additional cost of fuel is estimated at 18,808 US dollars for a sum of distance i.e. 72,992 km between residence location and workplace each month. In the case of commuters, the estimation result of the study is 1188 hours of additional time loss with 6706 US dollars’ worth per month. The estimation of total economic loss is 25514 US dollars per month. Specifically, per month, economic loss of doctors and taxi drivers is 6556 US dollars but teachers and bankers have not economic loss.