Responsive adaptations to traffic congestion in mega cities. The cases of Paris, São Paulo and Mumbai
This PhD dissertation studies the impact of traffic congestion in the daily life of metropolitan motorized households. Is traffic congestion worse in mega cities of developing countries? Could it be the future of the Paris region, given its slow growth of road infrastructure and its multiplication of car travels in the suburbs? Traffic congestion is defined as an internal perturbation of the automobile-based system. Adopting a systemic and comparative approach, we diagnose social, spatial and temporal characteristics of traffic congestion in the Paris region and in two mega cities of the developing world, São Paulo in Brazil and Mumbai in India. The diagnosis is based on the household travel surveys and the traffic data. We proceed to analyze the responses of public authorities, companies, organizations, and motorized households regarding traffic congestion in the three selected regions and how these responses interact. The analysis is based on our own transport policy evaluation and the investigation of the companies' and organizations' strategies, as well as on our household interactive stated response survey, followed by a quantitative survey in the Paris region.