Economic Cost of Traffic Congestion in Addis Ababa: 2024 Study

Every day, Addis Ababa loses up to 806 million ETB sitting in traffic. Not in a year of economic crisis. Not during a national emergency. Just on a regular Tuesday morning commute. A rigorous 2024 peer-reviewed study by S.B. Gunjo and colleagues published in Environmental Systems Research (Springer) is the first to put a precise number on what traffic congestion in Addis Ababa is actually costing the city by analyzing nine heavily congested road segments in Kolfe Keraniyo sub-city through field measurements, peak hour traffic counts, 3,240 driver and passenger surveys, and regression modeling.

The study calculated the total annual economic cost of traffic congestion in Addis Ababa across these segments at 696.5–806.3 million Ethiopian Birr (ETB). This figure accounts only for direct monetizable losses on the studied roads and excludes broader city-wide extrapolation, health, environmental, or accident-related costs.