The Netherlands' "Value of time" study : final report

Summarises the planning, design and execution of a programme of research into travellers' willingness-to-pay for travel time savings in the Netherlands (Second Transport Structure Plan / SVV II). The report is set out in seven sections, commencing with an introduction. Section 2 deals with the theoretical basis for the work, presenting an overview of the economic theory describing the mechanism which leads to the allocation of time to different activities; its implications for the value of travel-time savings; and the statistical theory, establishing how these can be inferred from observed (or stated) preferences for travel options. Section 3 discusses the types of data bases that could be assembled to support the research, contrasting observations of travellers' actual behavior in real choice contexts ('Revealed Preferences') with their expectations of their own behavior in hypothetical contexts ('Stated Preferences'). Section 4 describes the data sets assembled for the study, containing both 'Revealed Preference' and 'Stated Preference' information. Section 5 summarises the empirical results, leading on to Section 6 which contains recommendations for developments leading to the application of the results in a forecasting package. Final conclusions are drawn in section 7.