Worthwhile travel time: how do travel activities contribute to perceived values of travel time? Insights from European-wide app-based travel data

Abstract

Perceived travel experience has not been systematically integrated in transport project appraisal. The concept of worthwhile travel time (WTT) took the first step to fill this gap by introducing four perceived values of WTT (personal and work productivity, fitness, enjoyment) and the factors influencing them. This paper takes the next step by empirically exploring the factors influencing perceived WTT through a path analysis of a European-wide, app-based dataset on travel experience. Results show that (a) perceived WTT is directly influenced by the four values of WTT, mostly by enjoyment, (b) most travel activities directly influence the four values of WTT, with “accompanying someone” being the most important one, (c) women report lower perceived WTT than men, (d) trip purpose indirectly affects perceived WTT, with travel time thus not being purely valued based on destination.