Tehran Traffic Losses Hit $2.1b p.a.

Tehran was the eighth most traffic-congested city among 30 cities in the world in 2015. 

According to secretary of Iran Urban Economics Scientific Association, Seyed Mohsen Tabatabaie Mazdabadi, as much as 80 trillion rials ($2.1 billion) of Tehran resources are wasted every year as a result of traffic jams. 

“Fuel wasted in congested traffic totals 39.8 trillion rials ($1.04 billion) per year,” the Persian daily Asr-e Eqtesad quoted him as saying.

“The time wasted in traffic jams also carries a cost of 32.4 trillion rials ($852.63 million) in lost productivity, while air pollution costs as much as 7.93 trillion rials ($208.68 million).”

Mazdabadi noted that in the Iranian year to March 2015, some 69.6 million liters of gasoline a day were used in the country, of which 3.6 million liters were premium and 66 million were regular and Euro-4 gasoline. “Residents of Tehran Province purchased about 13.9 million liters worth $8.3 million per day, which equals 20% of the total consumption in the country,” he said.

“Travel delays caused by traffic average 50.7% in Tehran. Given the reported average travel time of 25 minutes in the capital city, the average delay per trip is 12.7 minutes.”

Studies have shown that building new freeways and motorways does not help get rid of the problem. 

Ali Nozarpour, an expert in urban management, said sustainable policies for managing road congestion like public transport infrastructure would be much more effective. 

“By spending the city’s financial resources on development of bus and subway systems instead of multi-level highways, Tehran Municipality could achieve better results,” he said.  

Nozarpour said Tehran city’s resources are adequate but the city’s managers need to sort out their main priorities.