Is a traffic tax the solution to congestion in cities? Not necessarily, according to research from Wharton real estate professor Gilles Duranton. He recently spoke to Knowledge at Wharton about the findings of his study, which is being funded by the Mack Institute for Innovation Management . An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Knowledge at Wharton : Could you start by telling us about your research? Gilles Duranton : My research interest is in congestion because we all perceive that congestion, when we live in large cities, is a big problem in our life, right? It prevents us from going places when we want to. It is making our commutes longer than perhaps they need to be. In time use surveys, when we ask people what is the thing that they dislike the most in their life, they usually mention congestion as number one. Perhaps surprisingly, they mention childcare together with household chores as number two. To assess the social cost of congestion, I looked at one particular city, Bogota, Colombia.…