The Unintended Consequences of Curfews on Road Safety

• Tác giả: Guadalupe Bedoya
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 155.93 Influence of specific situations
• Thông tin xuất bản: World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 291936
• Chủ đề: 1. CONGESTION EXTERNALITIES; 2. CURFEW; 3. PANDEMIC; 4. ROAD SAFETY; 5. VEHICLE CRASH

Tóm tắt

During COVID-19, curfews spread like wildfire. Although their impact on curbing the spread of disease remains to be proven, curfews have the potential to bring about costs to society in multiple domains. This paper investigates the impact of curfews on road safety in an urban lower-middle- income setting. It shows that curfews lead to large reductions in crashes during the curfew hours when cars are off the road, but that these reductions can be fully offset by an increase in crashes during heavy traffic hours when people rush to get home before the curfew starts. These spillover effects result from a behavioral response to the curfew-increased driving speed-leading to higher crash rates. These findings forewarn that the use of curfews in future crises and pandemics should be carefully scrutinized and designed to minimize unintended negative effects.