Gas Prices and Red light Violations in Chicago

Srikant Devaraj and Pankaj Patel ()
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Pankaj Patel: Villanova School of Business, Villanova University

Economics Bulletin, 2016, vol. 36, issue 3, 1844-1853

Abstract: Fuel efficient speeds in the US range between 40 and 50 mph. With increasing gas prices, to maintain fuel efficient speeds, drivers reduce speeds on highways. However, as most urban driving is below 50 mph, a reverse is possible – drivers could increase speeds to increase fuel efficiency. We use the context of running a red light as a decision to speed, a context not driven by lower congestion resulting from higher gas prices. For $1 increase in price of gas per gallon, number of red-light violations in Chicago increased by 5.95 percent. The findings are robust to controlling for daily congestion levels in Chicago.

Keywords: traffic safety; gas prices; red light violations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R1 R4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-09-29
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