Description:
During COVID-19, curfews spread like wildfire. Althoughtheir impact on curbing the spread of disease remains tobe proven, curfews have the potential to bring about coststo society in multiple domains. This paper investigates theimpact of curfews on road safety in an urban lower-middle-income setting. It shows that curfews lead to largereductions in crashes during the curfew hours when carsare off the road, but that these reductions can be fully offsetby an increase in crashes during heavy traffic hours whenpeople rush to get home before the curfew starts. Thesespillover effects result from a behavioral response to thecurfew-increased driving speed—leading to higher crashrates. These findings forewarn that the use of curfews infuture crises and pandemics should be carefully scrutinizedand designed to minimize unintended negative effects