An International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper published in May ranked India 127th among 162 countries in terms of speed of road transport. A comparison of the rankings shows that even Pakistan is ranked higher than India in terms of average speed. How should one interpret these findings? An HT analysis of the paper shows that the results are based on a selective sample and might not be representative of the actual condition of road traffic. Here is why:
The findings are limited to three to six biggest cities by population per country (excluding island countries such as Fiji) and only those farther than the largest city by at least 80 km. For example, the Indian cities selected are Mumbai, Ahmedabad (531 km from Mumbai), Bangalore (984 km from Mumbai), and Delhi (1,422 km from Mumbai). The analysis is based on 760 cities across 162 countries.