BAKU, Azerbaijan - A daily rush-hour commuter in Baku could lose about 153 hours a year in traffic, time valued at roughly 900 manats under a scenario calculated by researcher Ramil Abbasov.
The estimate is based on a worker traveling 10 kilometers each way between home and work. At an average speed of 30 kilometers per hour, the trip would take about 20 minutes. If congestion cuts the average speed to 15 kilometers per hour, it would take about 40 minutes.
That adds 20 minutes in each direction, or 40 minutes a day. Over 230 working days, the extra travel time totals 9,200 minutes, or about 153 hours - nearly 19 eight-hour working days.
How the 900-Manat Estimate Was Calculated
Abbasov, a researcher at George Mason University, used a monthly salary of 1,381 manats and 176 working hours a month for the calculation. That puts the estimated value of one working hour at 7.85 manats.
He then valued commuting time at 75% of an hourly wage, or 5.88 manats per hour. Multiplying that amount by 153 hours produces an annual time cost of about 900 manats.
The figure is not a direct deduction from a worker’s salary, and it is not an official estimate of the average amount lost by every Baku resident. It represents the estimated economic value of time lost under the specific route, speed, salary and workday assumptions used in the scenario.
Other Costs Are Not Included
The calculation does not include additional fuel consumption, vehicle wear, delays to deliveries and public transportation, or the health and environmental costs of traffic-related air pollution. Including those factors would raise the broader economic cost of congestion.
The analysis was first published by Olke.az and was subsequently reported by Vesti Baku.