Value of Traffic Externalities from Attribute-Based Stated Choice

Abstract

The increasing rate of motorization in major urban centers in Asia is having severe impacts on local social and physical environments. Sustainability principles call for consideration of these traffic impacts, which include congestion, air and noise pollution, road safety, and urban decay, in the evaluation of urban development programs and projects. This study aims to contribute to the scarce literature on valuing nonmonetary external costs of traffic in developing countries through the attribute-based stated choice method measuring willingness to pay for route environment improvements. A web-based stated preference route choice survey was conducted regarding private work trips in metro Manila, Philippines, to value the welfare derived from changes in the quality of road and roadside environments. The authors estimated and compared values from specifications of fixed and random parameter logit. This study shows that estimates are sensitive to model specification, particularly if the attributes have significant preference heterogeneity and covariance. The values of significant attributes affecting utility, which include the value of percentage improvement in air quality, the value of percentage reduction in noise, and the risk value from a traffic fatality, are presented and compared.