Delhi’s new winter traffic restrictions, introduced on November 1, 2026, have had little immediate impact on congestion across 24 of the city’s busiest roads, a CSE analysis found.
Travel times on the first Sunday were 2% longer than on comparable Sundays in 2025, while journeys on the first working day were just 2% quicker than the preceding Friday.
The entry ban targets older, non-BS-VI vehicles registered outside Delhi, leaving most Delhi-registered vehicles unaffected.
Experts call for stricter parking regulations, better public transport, improved last-mile connectivity and stronger enforcement to ease congestion and pollution.
On the morning of November 1, 2026, a commuter at the Delhi border spent three hours in a queue that barely moved. Enforcement teams at 13 major toll plazas, from DND and Rajokri on NH-48 to Ghazipur, Singhu and Tikri, were stopping vehicles that did not comply with the new rules. For many, the first day of Delhi’s winter restrictions began with more traffic, not less.
From November 1, vehicles registered outside Delhi that do not meet BS-VI emission standards have been barred from entering the city until January 31, 2027. Electric, CNG and essential vehicles are exempt. Parking charges at authorised sites have doubled, fuel stations have been instructed to refuse fuel to vehicles without a valid pollution under control (PUC) certificate, and offices have been asked to allow half their staff to work from home.
One might assume that if these measures take vehicles off the road, journeys across the city should become quicker. This analysis examines whether that has happened.
Travel times on a sample of 24 of Delhi’s most congested roads are collected from Google Maps every hour, day and night. The roads were selected following a review of the Report of the High Powered Committee on Decongesting Traffic in Delhi and the Delhi Traffic Police report identifying congestion hotspots.
Each hourly travel time is then compared with the road’s usual free-flow travel time between 2am and 4am on the same day, when roads are relatively empty. The resulting ratio is known as the travel time index (TTI). A journey that takes 10 minutes on an empty road and 25 minutes in traffic has a TTI of 2.5.
Sunday, November 1, the first day of the restrictions, is compared with the six Sundays between October 26 and November 30, 2025. Sundays are compared only with Sundays because traffic is usually lightest on that day. The comparison also covers the same time of year to account for seasonal and weather-related factors. Monday, November 2, the first working day under the restrictions, is compared with Friday, October 30, the last working day before the rules came into force.
Sunday traffic looked almost identical to that on a typical Sunday last year. Between 7am and 11pm, journeys took 2% longer than on Sundays in 2025. Morning peak travel times were unchanged, while evening peak travel times were 2% shorter. Traffic added about six minutes to an average journey, the same as last year. During the worst hour, between 4pm and 5pm, journeys took 2.1 times as long as they would on an empty road.
One detail is worth noting. On Friday, October 30, before any of the rules came into force, journeys took about 15% longer than on Fridays in 2025. Delhi’s roads are busier this year. A Sunday that matches last year’s traffic levels could mean the restrictions prevented a further increase in congestion, but one day’s data are not enough to establish this.
The real test lies in the weeks ahead. The same roads will be monitored throughout November and into winter. This analysis will be updated once sufficient data are available for Sundays and working days to distinguish a one-day fluctuation from a meaningful change.
Monday was the real test, bringing office commuters, school traffic and freight vehicles together under the new rules. Across the day, journeys were 2% quicker than on Friday. That sounds like progress until it is compared with the usual pattern. In November 2025, journeys on Mondays were, on average, 4% quicker than on the preceding Fridays. A 2% reduction is at the lower end of the normal range.
Morning peak travel times on Monday were about 2% longer than on Friday, while evening peak travel times were 2% shorter. Congestion was worst between 7pm and 8pm on both days, when journeys took 3.5 times as long as they would on an empty road on Monday, compared with 3.8 times on Friday. Traffic added about 20 minutes to an average journey.
The changes were uneven. Sixteen of the 24 roads recorded shorter travel times on Monday, while eight recorded longer ones. Journeys on Mathura Road took about a quarter less time, while those on GT Karnal Road near Shastri Park took more than a third longer. On both days, 18 of the 24 roads experienced at least one hour when journeys took three times as long as they would on an empty road.
The results are not surprising when the measures are examined closely. The entry ban applies only to vehicles registered outside Delhi and only to those that do not meet BS-VI emission standards. Most journeys on the city’s roads are made in Delhi-registered vehicles, which are unaffected by the ban. The transport department’s estimate of more than 10 lakh (one million) affected vehicles across the four neighbouring districts refers to vehicle registrations, not daily journeys into the city.
Working from home is the measure most likely to ease peak-hour traffic, but its impact is also the hardest to verify because it depends on compliance by offices. Doubling parking charges at authorised sites is likely to have a limited effect while on-street parking remains cheap or free.
Other factors were also at play. Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) rose from 117 on October 31 to 261 on Sunday and 324 on Monday, when Stage II of the Graded Response Action Plan was invoked. Vehicle checks at toll plazas also slowed traffic at the very borders the rules were intended to ease.
The problem, therefore, lies not in the intent of the rules but in their reach and effectiveness.
Restrictions targeting a narrow group of vehicles will not, on their own, make Delhi’s roads less congested or its air cleaner. The data will continue to be monitored throughout winter, but the early findings point to additional measures the city should introduce alongside the ban:
Regulate on-street parking: Introduce and enforce parking charges on all public streets so that the cost of driving reflects the road space vehicles occupy.
Improve public transport: Increase bus capacity and frequency during the restriction period to provide viable alternatives to private vehicles.
Strengthen last-mile connectivity: Build or improve safe walking, cycling and paratransit connections to metro and bus stations, as the first and last kilometre often determine commuters’ choice of transport.
Publish compliance and traffic data: Release data on vehicle entry and exit, alongside updated traffic volume surveys and AQI readings, so that the measures can be assessed and adjusted during the restriction period.