Dataset of global cities’ congestion level and urban spatial pattern

This dataset includes many indexes of global cities. The variables of congestion level, skyscraper index, whether a city was bombed in WWII (World War II), and global cities’ population are key variables. (1) The congestion level data were collected from TOMTOM company. The congestion level data include five indexes which are “Congestion level”, “Morning peak Congestion level”, “Evening peak Congestion level”, “Highways Congestion level”, “Non-highways Congestion level” in 2004, but only include two indexes in 2020 which are “Time lost per year” and “Congestion level”. (2) The data of skyscraper index calculated using the data of building height from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, from which we can obtain accurate data on the number of buildings taller than 150 m. With these data, we constructed an index of skyscrapers taller than 150 m in a city. A building receives a score of 1.5 if it is taller than 150 m and shorter than 200 m, 2.0 if it is between 200 m and 300 m, and so on. Then, we summed the scores for skyscrapers in the city as the “skyscraper index” of the city. (3) The data of whether a city was bombed in WWII is dummy variable, if the urban area of a city was bombed in WWII, it is 1, and 0 otherwise. The authors consulted various historical files and determined the value. (4) The data of global cities’ population, as well as the area and density of the city, are on the city-level, and were collected from the website of the cities or countries’ statistics department. These indicators are good measures of the level of congestion, urban spatial structure, IV(instrumental variable) for urban spatial structure, and urban population in global cities, and can be reused in other analysis.


a b s t r a c t
This dataset includes many indexes of global cities. The variables of congestion level, skyscraper index, whether a city was bombed in WWII (World War II), and global cities' population are key variables. (1) The congestion level data were collected from TOMTOM company. The congestion level data include five indexes which are "Congestion level", "Morning peak Congestion level", "Evening peak Congestion level", "Highways Congestion level", "Non-highways Congestion level" in 2004, but only include two indexes in 2020 which are "Time lost per year" and "Congestion level". (2) The data of skyscraper index calculated using the data of building height from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, from which we can obtain accurate data on the number of buildings taller than 150 m. With these data, we constructed an index of skyscrapers taller than 150 m in a city. A building receives a score of 1.5 if it is taller than 150 m and shorter than 200 m, 2.0 if it is between 200 m and 300 m, and so on. Then, we summed the scores for skyscrapers in the city as the "skyscraper index" of the city. (3) The data of whether a city was bombed in WWII is dummy variable, if the urban area of a city was bombed in WWII, it is 1, and 0 otherwise. The authors consulted various historical files and determined the value. (4) The data of global cities' population, as well as the area and density of the city, are on the city-level, and were collected from the website of the cities or countries' statistics department. These indicators are good measures of the level of congestion, urban spatial structure, IV(instrumental variable) for urban spatial structure, and urban population in global cities, and can be reused in other analysis.
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ) Table   Subject Economics, Econometrics and Finance Specific subject area Regional science and urban economics Type of data

Value of the Data
• These indicators are good measures of the level of congestion, population of a city, and urban spatial structure etc. First of all, there are few congestion indexes which can cover a great number of cities all over the world. However, the congestion index used in this paper were collected and calculated by TOMTOM, a famous navigation and mobile location services company, which provided congestion data of 448 cities. Since the data were collected and calculated by the same company, this indicator can be compared well with each other in cross-section. Secondly, the population statistics varies from country to country, like city-level, MSA(Metropolitan Statistical Areas)-level etc.. We tried our best to collected the population of 511 cities around year 2013. The urban spatial structure indexes of global cities were also calculated in the same standard, so they can be compared with each other. • The indicator of "Whether a city was bombed in WWII" is a good IV (instrumental variable) for urban spatial pattern [1] . It was found in many countries, that the buildings of an area (or a city) will be higher if the area was bombed during WWII. And "Whether a city was bombed in WWII" is a good IV (instrumental variable) for urban spatial pattern used in some researches. However, there are few data sets of "Whether a city was bombed in WWII" for global cities. The data set provided covers 511 cities all over the world. • If a researcher wants to do the research on regional science and urban economics, especially urban spatial pattern and congestion [2] , he/she can use these data. The country this city belongs to. Popcity Population of the city (person). areacity Area of the city (km 2 ). densitycity Population density of the city (person/km 2 ). congestion2019 Congestion level of the city in year 2019(%), measuring travel times during the whole day and compares these with measured travel times during non-congested periods (Free Flow conditions). bombed Whether the city was bombed during WWII (bombed = 1, 0 otherwise).

SI
The skyscraper index of the city which represents the urban spatial pattern. The country this city belongs to. congestionlevel Average congestion level of the city in year 2014(%), measuring travel times during the whole day and during peak periods and compares these with measured travel times during non-congested periods (Free Flow conditions). morningpeak Congestion level of the city during morning peak (%). eveningpeak Average congestion level of the city during evening peak (%).
( continued on next page ) variables Description of variables highways Average congestion level of the city in highways (%). nonhighways Average congestion level of the city in nonhighways (%). indexofbuildingdensity150800 The skyscraper index of the city which represents the urban spatial pattern. indexofbuildingdensity150800mixr The skyscraper index of the city with only mixed-use buildings. indexofbuildingdensity150800resi The skyscraper index of the city with only residential buildings. bombed Whether the city was bombed during WWII (bombed = 1, 0 otherwise). population Population of the city (person).
• The CCCSTATAcode.txt is the code for Stata.

Experimental Design, Materials and Methods
(1) The variable of skyscraper index: the raw data came from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, from which we can obtain accurate data on the number of buildings taller than 150 m. With these data, we constructed an index of skyscrapers taller than 150 m in a city. A building receives a score of 1.5 if it is taller than 150 m and shorter than 200 m, 2.0 if it is between 200 m and 300 m, and so on. Then, we summed the scores for skyscrapers in the city as the "skyscraper index" of the city. The variables of indexofbuild-ingdensity150800mixr and indexofbuildingdensity150800resi were calculated using the same method, but only with the mixed-use buildings and residential buildings. (2) The variable of densitycity: The city population density was obtained by dividing the city population by the area of the city. (3) The variable of whether a city was bombed during WWII: We compared various kinds of data and verified with each other to determine whether the urban area of a city was bombed during World War II. If the urban area of a city was bombed during World War II, the indicator is 1, otherwise it is 0. (4) Other variables: Other variables are raw data without calculation.

Role of the Funding Source
The funding source has nothing to do with this research except paying the submission fee.

Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Data Availability
Constructing compact cities: How urban regeneration can enhance growth (Original data) (figshare repository).