Travel time savings are a major benefit arising from transport infrastructure and service improvements. In developed countries these benefits can account for as much as 80% of overall benefits. Although the importance of including travel time saving values in transport project appraisals in developing countries is recognised by most researchers and practitioners, they are generally ignored. This is partlyubecause of a paucity of empirical evidence to support the use of conventional models for valuing time in developing countries where work patterns, particularly of the poor, are diverse and it is not always possible to make a distinction between work and non-work activities. Most rural travel and transport in LDCs is undertaken by poorer people walking and headloading on local roads, tracks and paths. Foruthem, improvements in the local infrastructure and services have the potential to bring about large time savings through modal shifts. In the absence of reliable methods and evidence for valuing such travel time savings, vehicle operating costs (VOC) savings are assumed to be the main benefits in appraising investments. The exclusion of travel time savings of the rural poor may lead to a bias against investment decisions which benefit the rural poor and understate the poverty reduction potential of transport interventions in Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This paper reports on a study to develop a methodology for valuing rural travel time savings in LDCs commissioned by the Department for International Development (DFID), UK. The paper describes the extent of relevancy of the theories evolved in developed countries on valuing travel time savings in the context of LDCs and identifies the main empirical and theoretical issues needs consideration while valuing travel time savings. The validity of use of preference methods - both stated preference (SP) and revealed preference (RP) - in valuing travel time savings is also discussed based on Bangladesh field experiences. The paper presents and discusses the results of the analysis carried out from Bangladesh field data and explains the main features of the field study. The travel time saving values of rural people for a combination of personal and travel attributes are also presented. Someuof the findings of the field study challenge the conventional wisdom concerning travel time saving values in developing countries. Bangladesh study suggests that the western concept of dividing travel time savings into working and non-working time savings is broadly valid in developing country context. However, working trips will need redefining depending on the nature of the rural economy of a developing country. Between the RP and SP methods for valuation of non-working travel time savings, SP method is found to be the most suitable, as its suitability was successfully tested for different infrastructure and travel alternatives. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135448.
Abstract