The levels of usage of a toll-road are dependent on three major factors: the Level of Service (travel times, costs and other factors) on the Toll Road; the Level of Service on competing roads; and the values placed on these Level of Service variables by the travelling public. A conventional assumption is that the major factors affecting Level of Service are the travel time and the travel cost, although clearly other factors (such as reliability of travel time) could also be important under various circumstances. One means of obtaining quantitative estimates of this WTP is by means of Stated Preference (SP) surveys, wherein survey respondents are asked to choose between different scenarios describing different Levels of Service on the toll-road and an alternative route. Typically, the scenarios involve a reduction of travel time in conjunction with an increase in toll. The willingness to pay tolls to obtain reductions in travel time is characterised by the Value of Time (VoT) for a respondent, which is defined as the ratio of the marginal utility of money divided by the marginal utility of travel time. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E211903.
Samenvatting