The monetary value of transport safety An efficient allocation of government budgets over various safety-related and other purposes requires the quantification of the value of transport safety. For this, transport safety need to be valued in an accepted way. It is widely accepted among economists that the monetary value of safety has to reflect the preferences of those affected by the policy measure. Monetary estimates of the value of safety, reflecting the preferences of individuals, have not been made in the Netherlands. The aim of this article is to estimate the value of safety for the Netherlands, yet. Before describing the empirical part of the research, an overview of valuation methods based on individual preferences and a literature review of empirical Value Of Statistical Life (VOSL) studies is given. Two different methods are used to value a statistical life in road safety. Besides the different methods, there are other points influencing the estimates, like the goods connected to the safety improvement and the way in which the respondents have to pay for the safety improvement. The VOSL estimates based on the different methods range between 2 and 5 million Euro. This article describes ongoing research, which implies that no general conclusion bas been made, yet. (Author/publisher)
Abstract