For motorists, the value of travel time savings in monetary terms has decreased in recent years. This development has not occurred for train passengers, however. The value of travel time savings for freight transport via roads and railway has also decreased. For the first time information is now available about the value of a greater reliability of travel times. These are the findings of the publication, ‘The social value of shorter and more reliable travel times’, by the KiM Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy Analysis. Based on research carried out by a consortium led by Significance, KiM has provided new social-economic values for changes in average travel times and in the reliability of travel times. This is also the first time that values for passenger air travel and recreational navigation were determined based on empirical research. In order to determine the social value of travel time and the reliability of travel time, the respondents were presented with situations in which the costs of a journey, the travel time and the travel time reliability vary. The respondents’ choices show how travel times, travel time reliability and expenditures are traded off against one another. The social-economic values for changes in average travel times and in the reliability of travel times are applied in societal cost-benefit analyses conducted for infrastructure projects. Societal cost-benefit analyses play a key role in investment decisions pertaining to transport infrastructure for example, road expansions, railway line expansions or the construction of bridges and locks. Shorter and more reliable travel times are important social benefits. In order to use the social-economic value of travel time savings and greater reliability in a cost-benefit analysis, these values have been expressed in monetary terms. (Author/publisher)
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