The value of travel time: a revealed preferences approach using exogenous variation in travel costs and automatic traffic count data

Abstract

This paper suggests an alternative approach to estimate the value of travel time (VTT) savings, using a case study with exogenous variation in travel costs and data from automatic traffic counts (ATC). With this revealed preferences approach, we address a possible bias of VTT estimates because of self-selection. Compared to the VTT estimates used in transport appraisals, the results produce substantially higher estimates of VTT. Unfortunately, our analysis does allow us to distinguish the self-selection bias from other possible sources of bias. The cost of using ATC data is that there is no direct information regarding the motorists, and the analysis must be done using aggregated data at an hourly interval. Still, this alternative approach may complement the results with more detailed data.