Public transport values of time

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this aspect of the study are to provide recommended valuations of:

• Public transport in-vehicle time (IVT) • Walk time • Wait time/headway with appropriate modifiers according to key factors such as: • Mode user type • The mode to which the value relates • Journey distance and inter urban or urban context • Journey purpose

A recommended procedure for updating values of time over time is also required. Although this issue is touched upon in this paper, a more detailed analysis is the subject of a separate aspect of the study and is reported in Working Paper 566. The Accent and Hague Consulting Group study did not cover public transport. Nor is this study conducting fresh empirical research. We must therefore base our recommendations on other existing studies. Fortunately, there is a wealth of British evidence on the value of time.

Section 2 provides some background to the valuations of time for public transport users and the valuation of attributes which are important aspects of public transport use. Section 3 details the additional data that has been collected to enhance our previous data sets upon which we have conducted meta-analysis (Wardman, 2001) whilst Section 4 presents tabulations of the money values of time, and the time values of walk, wait and headway, disaggregated as far as is sensible by purpose, mode and whether the journey is urban or inter-urban.

Section 5 describes the principal approach that we have adopted to explain the values of time obtained from the many different studies that are available to us.

Section 6 is concerned with a regression model estimated to the money values for all travellers. From this model are extracted the money values of time and the IVT equivalent values of walk time, wait time and headway for public transport users. The IVT values can be expressed as absolute values or as relative to car users’ values. The latter is useful where recommended public transport values are derived as a series of modifiers to car users’ values.

As a check of the IVT values of walk, wait and headway implied by the model estimated to money values, we report in section 7 a model estimated solely to the IVT values of walk, wait and headway. Concluding remarks are provided in section 8. Recommendations and comparisons with other aspects of the study are a feature of Working Paper 567.