Road Quality and Mean Speed Score

IMF Working Papers, May 20, 2022

Source details

Introduces a novel measure of cross-country road quality: the Mean Speed (MS) score, based on travel mean speed between large cities from Google Maps.
Positioning: MS score is presented as easier to estimate and update than traditional gauges that rely on official reports, surveys (i.e., World Economic Forum’s Quality of Roads Perception survey), or satellite imaging (i.e., World Bank’s Rural Access Index).
Sample: over 160 countries.
Reported MS score range: between 38 km/h (23.6 mph) and 107 km/h (66.5 mph).
Claim: MS score is a strong proxy for road quality and access.

The MS score captures cross-country variation in road infrastructure and access gaps.
Advantages over existing measures:
- Easier to estimate and update than official reports.
- Less reliant on perception surveys (World Economic Forum’s Quality of Roads Perception survey).
- Alternative to satellite-imaging based indices (World Bank’s Rural Access Index).
Empirical sample and range:
- Sample size: over 160 countries.
- MS scores observed: 38 km/h (23.6 mph) to 107 km/h (66.5 mph).

Core measure: travel mean speed between large cities as reported by Google Maps.
Comparative framing: presented as a proxy for road quality and access relative to established measures (official reports, perception surveys, satellite imaging).

Subjects listed: Income, Infrastructure, National accounts.
Keywords: Access to Infrastructure, Africa, B. geometric mean speed Score, Global, Income, Infrastructure, MS score, road infrastructure, road network characteristic, Road Quality, Sustainable Development Goals.