Abstract The value of travel time (VTT) can be said to be the most important number in transport economics, and its estimation has been the topic of extensive academic and applied work. Numerous papers use the term “value of travel time savings”, or VTTS. The addition of the word “savings” has not arisen suddenly but goes back to the 1970s, and has also been used in the titles of national studies. The addition of ‘savings’ is in our view incorrect, misleading and unhelpful. Unlike money, time cannot be stored or borrowed—there is no piggy bank for spare minutes. In addition, the modelling approaches used for many of the more advanced VTT studies in fact produce valuations that are ‘bracketed’ between gains and losses in time, and an average between these gains and losses, typically the geometric mean, is then used as the VTT. It is then clear that the value obtained from this averaging cannot be described as the value of time savings (or reductions), as it includes the higher value of losses (i.e. increases) as well. To exemplify the magnitude of our theoretical points, we show how for the 2015 UK VTT study, using the bracketed value for commuters and labelling it as a VTTS implies an overestimation by a factor of more than 2.


    Access

    Download

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    VTT or VTTS: a note on terminology for value of travel time work


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2019




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Classification :

    BKL:    74.75$jVerkehrsplanung$jVerkehrspolitik / 55.80$jVerkehrswesen$jTransportwesen: Allgemeines / 55.80 Verkehrswesen, Transportwesen: Allgemeines / 74.75 Verkehrsplanung, Verkehrspolitik



    VTT or VTTS: a note on terminology for value of travel time work

    Daly, Andrew / Hess, Stephane | Online Contents | 2019


    The contribution of work, leisure and travel to the subjective value of travel time savings

    Jara-Diaz, S. / Guevara, C. A. / Association for European Transport | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2000


    The value of travel time

    Burns, Lawrence D. | Elsevier | 1980


    Value of Travel Time Savings

    Sheikh, Adnan / Guin, Angshuman / Guensler, Randall | Transportation Research Record | 2019


    The Value of travel time

    Cox, B. E. | TIBKAT | 1983