Value Of Travel Time Research Articles

Segmentation analysis of domestic tourists — A case study

This paper presents the segmentation analysis of domestic leisure tourists in India. Samples were taken from visitors to 6 cities categorised by ‘leisure value’ and the population was further segmented based on ‘household income’ and ‘trip frequency’. Key salient features were substantial numbers of tourists belonging to middle-income group, and major share going to train. Logit analysis was carried out. NL structure was justified for seven categorisations out of nine. The proposed sub-categorisation was found to be significant and statically different then the parent population. Factors like household income, comfort and convenience of use of a travel mode, service levels in travel modes, budgetary constraints, presence of children and older persons in a family and affordability of travel mode were found to be influencing the leisure travel. Consideration set got influenced by user and destination connectivity. Frequency of travel was affected by economic affordability and status of the tourist. Value of travel time kept shifting judiciously across the sub-categories. The tourists valued their time highly if visiting spiritual locations or made less number of leisure trips in a year. Middle income group was found aspiring to avail higher facilities on leisure travel and was willing to pay more for the same. Policy initiatives are proposed based on the work. The approach is applicable to any city across the countries, which has either cultural, religious or waterfront value.

Do people consider an acceptable travel time? Evidence from Berkeley, CA

This paper explores the extent to which people identify an acceptable travel time for each trip they want to make and investigates the primary characteristics of this behavioural threshold. We assume that an acceptable travel time is defined through utilitarian processes that are related to cognitive and affective evaluations of travel that develop throughout a person’s lifetime. We apply a mixed methods approach to explore our hypothesis, based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with a stratified, according to commuting mode, random sample of 20 individuals living in Berkeley, CA. Our results support the validity of the acceptable travel time concept and offer (a) initial evidence on its variation to the travel mode and sociodemographic characteristics and (b) insights into people’s perceptions, attitudes, feelings and experiences about their travel. Thus, our results can contribute to a better understanding of individuals’ travel decisions and valuation of travel time and can inform time–space and accessibility research.

Multi-objective path finding in stochastic time-dependent road networks using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm

In this paper, a new multi-objective path-finding model is proposed to find optimal paths in road networks with time-dependent stochastic travel times. This study is motivated by the fact that different travelers usually have different route-choice preferences, often involving multiple conflicting criteria such as expected path travel time, variance of path travel time and so forth. However, most of the existing studies have only considered the expected value of path travel time as the sole decision criterion. In order to solve the multi-objective model, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm is employed and its parameters are tuned by the Taguchi method. Moreover, a dynamic n-point crossover operator is developed to enhance the search capability of the genetic algorithm. Experimental results on a grid network demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to provide a set of non-dominated paths from which travelers can choose their paths based on their attitudes toward travel time uncertainty. Statistical analysis confirms that the dynamic n-point crossover operator outperforms the traditional one-point crossover operator.

Making time count: Traveler activity engagement on urban transit

In practice, travel time is assigned a cost and treated as a disutility to be minimized. There is a growing body of research supporting the hypothesis that travel time has some value of its own, and the proliferation of information and communication technology (ICT) may be contributing to that value. Travelers’ attitudes are confounded with their mode choice, and as telecommunications mediate travel behavior, analysts must recognize the interaction between time use and customer satisfaction for appropriate travel demand management. To that end, this paper presents results from jointly estimated models of travelers’ latent satisfaction and on-board activity engagement using Chicago transit rider data gathered in April 2010. The simple questionnaire and small sample corroborate the findings of past research indicating travel attitudes and activity engagement have potential to influence travelers’ value of time, and many transit riders consider transit a better use of time and/or money than driving. The findings affirm the need for a more holistic understanding of value of time for travel demand management and infrastructure valuation. As time use has an influence on users’ valuation of the transit mode, offering opportunities to conduct certain leisure activities could improve the perceived value of travel time.

Tolled multi-class traffic equilibria and toll sensitivities

We review properties of tolled equilibria in road networks, with users differing in their time values, and study corresponding sensitivities of equilibrium link flows w.r.t. tolls. Possible applications include modeling of individual travellers that have different trip purposes (e.g. work, business, leisure, etc.) and therefore perceive the relation between travel time and monetary cost in dissimilar ways. The typical objective is to reduce the total value of travel time (TVT) over all users. For first best congestion pricing, where all links in the network can be tolled, the solution can be internalized through marginal social cost (MSC) pricing. The MSC equilibrium typically has to be implemented through fixed tolls. The MSC as well as the fixed-toll equilibrium problems can be stated as optimization problems, which in general are convex in the fixed-toll case and non-convex in the MSC case. Thus, there may be several MSC equilibria. Second-best congestion pricing, where one only tolls a subset of the links, is much more complex, and equilibrium flows, times and TVT are not in general differentiable w.r.t. tolls in sub-routes used by several classes. For generic tolls, where the sets of shortest paths are stable, we show how to compute Jacobians (w.r.t positive tolls) of link flows and times as well as of the TVT. This can be used in descent schemes to find tolls that minimize the TVT at least locally. We further show that a condition of independent equilibrium cycles, together with a natural extension of the single class regularity condition of strict complementarity, leads to genericity, and hence existence of said Jacobians.

NILAI WAKTU KENDARAAN PRIBADI DI KOTA BANDA ACEH

The value of travel time becomes an important part of the gains in the assessment of a transport project in terms of economic considerations. In this research, the calculation of the value of travel time for users of private vehicles in Banda Aceh. Purposes of calculating the value of travel time is to vote as a result of a wasted opportunity when used to produce something as a result of traveling purposes. Of the various methods that can be used to determine the value of travel time method selection transport modes (mode choice approach) with a stated preference survey data is either to be used in determining the value of time based on the use of public transport (labi-labi) as the second choice , but taken one more method is the method of income (income approach) as a comparison. As for the results in this study is the comparison of both methods is the method of choice of transport modes (mode choice approach) and method of income (income approach) to obtain the value of travel time for users of private vehicles in the city of Banda Aceh.

Reliability in the German Value of Time Study

The German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure is currently preparing the 2015 Federal Transport Investment Plan. Because this effort includes an update to the overall methodology of the ministry's cost–benefit analysis, both the value of reliability (VOR) and the value of travel time (VOT) for personal and business travel will be estimated. The VOT will replace a set of existing values, but the VOR will be estimated for the first time because they are not yet incorporated in the standard appraisal. A two-stage approach was used for data collection: first respondents reported about current trips (revealed preference), and then these responses were systematically varied to become the basis for stated preference experiments. This paper presents the findings of estimating the VOR. In the stated preference experiments the reliability of the travel modes was presented with different formats. The final model formulation differed in the definition of reliability for private and public transport. For car trips, saving travel time had more value for the respondents than reducing the variability. The calculated VOR for the mean expected unscheduled delay of public transport trips was slightly lower than the VOT; this result indicates that the reliability was less important to the respondents than the relevant travel time saving. A mean expected unscheduled delay of 1 min and 1 min of standard deviation are almost equivalent to 1 min of travel time saving (reliability ratio). Because this was the first official estimation of VOR and VOT for Germany, the values should be reconsidered and updated on a regular basis.

Hurried or Risk-adverse Travelers: who will Pay More for Multimodal Information?

By enabling the use of multimodal information by travelers, public policy can improve the use of soft travel modes and reduce the negative externalities of car use. However, such an eco-innovative multimodal information platform might only be efficient if travelers are willing to use it and pay for its development and update. To evaluate the relevance of the creation of a multimodal platform in the Plateau de Saclay – an area located 20km south of Paris, very concerned by congestion – this paper measures workers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for such a platform from a survey conducted in this area. A multinomial logit with unobserved heterogeneity is estimated to determine marginal WTP for the services that could potentially be provided by the platform. The respective effects of risk aversion and value of travel time on this marginal WTP are also investigated. Some gender differences in the evaluation of the platform and its trip planning are also apparent: men's WTP increases with their value of travel time and decreases with their risk aversion while women's WTP is mainly influenced by the constraints they may face when commuting

Use of Access Travel Time to Estimate the Impact of Driveway Restrictions on Corner Lot Developments

The types of data needed to assess the economic impacts of access management treatments on businesses, such as net profits or tax revenue, are difficult to obtain in a consistent and reliable manner. As a result, most research efforts on the topic have used subjective data collected through surveys and interviews, as well as less direct data variables, such as long-term land values. Although these efforts are valuable and insightful, their findings are difficult to apply to small-scale access decisions about a specific parcel of land. It is assumed that the travel time required to access a development is a contributing factor in the decision to patronize a business. Therefore, these travel time values could be a useful measure in evaluating potential effects of access management decisions on specific developments. This study used microsimulation to explore the use of travel time into and out of a corner lot development as a measure of the potential impact of driveway restrictions on business vitality. Results indicated that when only one access point was provided, a driveway on the minor road required less travel time than a driveway on the major road, although the relative difference in travel times decreased as volume decreased. In addition, under many of the scenarios tested, the provision of additional access (either additional driveways or fewer movement restrictions) did not reduce the amount of time required for potential customers to access a corner lot development.

An Optimal Allocation Model of Public Transit Mode Proportion for the Low-Carbon Transportation

Public transit has been widely recognized as a potential way to develop low-carbon transportation. In this paper, an optimal allocation model of public transit mode proportion (MPMP) has been built to achieve the low-carbon public transit. Optimal ratios of passenger traffic for rail, bus, and taxi are derived by running the model using typical data. With different values of traffic demand, construction cost, travel time, and accessibilities, MPMP can generate corresponding optimal ratios, benefiting decision impacts analysis and decision makers. Instead of considering public transit as a united system, it is separated into units in this paper. And Shanghai is used to test model validity and practicality.

Value of Schedule Delays by Time of Day

This study estimated the value of schedule delays (VSD) along the high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes on State Road 167 in the state of Washington on the basis of revealed preference data from toll-paying users. More than 5 months of tolling records that included more than 1 million lane choices were used in the analysis. A mixed logit model was estimated to account for heterogeneity at the individual level. Drivers were assumed to evaluate reliability relative to their desired or expected arrival times (i.e., reference points). Three empirically determined reference point specifications were employed to calculate schedule delays, and the sensitivity of the results with respect to reference points was reported accordingly. The model estimations showed significant variations in the estimated VSDs for different times of day and also in different travel directions. The differences in VSD estimations could be as high as $17/h in a single time period depending on the reference point assumption. Reference point assumption was also shown to have a significant effect on the VSD when scheduling delays were used for measuring travel time reliability. Empirical findings of this study provide useful insights into the variability of the value of travel time of users traveling in different time periods. In particular, these results can help in the development of policies for more effective allocation of traffic capacity to HOT lanes, especially during peak congestion periods.

A Methodology for Assessing the Performance of Structural Measures to Mitigate Traffic Congestion: A Case Study of Chittagong Port Flyover

An efficient transport system is characterized by accessibility and mobility of traffic works as an impetus for economic development of a country. Chittagong, the business capital of Bangladesh, requires an efficient transport system in order to boost the economic growth. To do so, Chittagong Development Authority has prepared a long term development strategy for traffic and transport system of Chittagong. Some of these strategies include infrastructure development such as flyover, over-pass and expressway construction. But it is necessary to evaluate whether these infrastructures are improving the efficiency of transport system or not. In order to do so, it is also important to identify the major suitable indicators for assessing the performance of those infrastructures for Chittagong. However, Chittagong Port flyover is one of those infrastructures that have already been implemented. The aim of this study is to determine the efficiency of this substantial flyover through the comparison of different suitable roadway and related factors such as Level of Service (LOS), Vehicular Operating Cost (VOC), and Value of Travel time (VOT) etc. before and after the flyover construction. To find out the information, volume survey, speed survey and questionnaire survey have been conducted. It is found that most of the time free flow exists over the flyover and vehicular operating cost reduced for truck. After separating freight transport from passenger carrying traffic, the level of service of the road just beneath the flyover has also improved. It is also found that for assessing the performance this methodology require less survey instrument, less resource and time. This methodology can be used for assessing the performance of other structural measures not only situated in Chittagong but also in any other area of Bangladesh. Journal of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, Vol. 7, Dec 2014, pp. 53-62

Dealing with collinearity in travel time valuation

The value of travel time (VOT) is defined as the marginal rate of substitution between travel time and travel cost, and it is typically calculated using standard econometric techniques. However, it is very common for both variables (travel time and travel cost) to present high correlation, artificially increasing the variance of the VOT estimator. We propose a new approach to estimating VOT in the context of logistic regression models (that could also be applicable to classical discrete choice models), based on an application of the ridge regression approach. Using simulated data, we demonstrate that the ridge estimator reduces the variance and mean-squared error of the VOT. Additionally, we obtain a lower estimation bias for the VOT estimation, due to a geometric property of the ridge estimator that is applicable for VOT (defined as the ratio of the travel time and travel cost parameters in linear models). We applied the methodology to a large sample of interurban trips by bus and train in the South of Chile, achieving reductions of nearly 50% in the variance of the VOT.

Do rich households live farther away from their workplaces?

One of the classic predictions of urban economic theory is that high-income and low-income households choose different residential locations and therefore, conditional on workplace location, have different commuting patterns. The effect of household income on commuting distance may be positive, because of an increased demand for housing as house prices are lower further from workplace locations, or negative, because of an increase in the value of travel time. In addition, the sign of this effect may depend on the location of residential amenities relative to workplaces. Empirical tests of this effect are not standard, due to reverse causation and lack of good control variables. To address reverse causation, this effect is derived using changes in household income and distance through residential moves keeping workplace location constant. Our results contradict previous results in the literature. We show that for Denmark, conditional on the workplace location, the income elasticity of distance is negative and in the order of −0.18. This elasticity is larger for single-earner than for dual-earner households. Conditional on that the household moves residence between municipalities, the elasticity is suggested to be around −0.60.

Economic analyses of sea-level rise adaptation strategies in transportation considering spatial autocorrelation

This paper reports the impacts of economic analysis results on sea-level rise adaptation decision making with different economic analysis methods. The methodology was applied to Hillsborough County, Florida. A general conclusion is that partial shoreline protection should be implemented to reduce the potential impacts of sea-level rise on important land use, then transportation infrastructure is preferred to be protected or accommodated, and finally managed relocation should be adopted. More specifically, the results show that the best adaptation strategy is shoreline protection plus transportation infrastructure accommodation; the length of shoreline protection plays an important role in the economic analysis results, and shoreline protection and accommodation adaptation strategies for all areas are not recommended because of either high costs or low benefits; the value of travel time saving and spatial autocorrelation play important roles in the economic analysis results of accommodation strategy, which highlights the importance of including indirect economic factors and spatial autocorrelation impacts when making sea-level rise adaptation decisions.

Travel time modeling for bus transport system in Bangalore city

The aim of this work is to model travel time of buses in Bangalore city. Travel time estimation and prediction is inevitable for planning and operation of bus transport system. Moreover, accurate travel time prediction is an important requirement in most of the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) applications. Previous approaches on travel time prediction have been mostly done in “lane disciplined” and “homogeneous traffic conditions.” In this work, an attempt is made to predict travel time of public transport buses using Kalman filtering technique in Indian conditions where the traffic is heterogeneous and not lane disciplined. The additional challenge faced in the Indian conditions is the unavailability and/or ineffectiveness of automated data collection devices such as loop detectors. Data collection was done in Bangalore, India for different times of a day and also for different days of a week for understanding the travel time variation on different days. A prediction model was developed using Kalman filtering technique. The validation of the results shows good comparability of modeled values with the actual travel time values.

The Analysis of Value of Travel Time of Students in Guangzhou High Education Center

Travel time results from the process of travel, so the value of travel time is an important parameter for trip mode choice. The estimation of the value of travel time is the result of a comprehensive and multi-index calculation, which is affected by many factors. Using one questionnaire, this paper gets the data of travel willingness of Sun Yet-San University students in Guangzhou High Education Center. On the basis of the data, this paper analyzes the influence factors of value of travel time of students in Guangzhou High Education Center in detail. This paper improves the utility function considering travel time and cost, and establishes the concept of value of travel time of Guangzhou High Education Center students. Through the analysis of the public-transportation system to the outside of Guangzhou High Education Center at present, this paper provides optimizing suggestions.

Probabilistic Choice and Congestion Pricing with Heterogeneous Travellers and Price-Sensitive Demand

This paper deals with first-best and second-best congestion pricing of a stylised two-link network with probabilistic route choice of travellers. Travellers may have heterogeneous values of travel times and may differ in their idiosyncratic route preferences. We derive first-best and second-best tolls taking into account how the overall network demand responds to generalized costs including the tolls that are levied. We show that with homogeneous values of times the welfare losses of second-best pricing, of one link only, may be smaller if route choice is probabilistic. Furthermore, we show that with heterogeneous values of times, common second-best tolls and group-differentiated tolls can be very close when route choice is governed by random utility maximisation, leading to low welfare losses from the inability to differentiate tolls.

A method for finding the optimal predictor indices for local wave climate conditions

In this study, a method to obtain local wave predictor indices that take into account the wave generation process is described and applied to several locations. The method is based on a statistical model that relates significant wave height with an atmospheric predictor, defined by sea level pressure fields. The predictor is composed of a local and a regional part, representing the sea and the swell wave components, respectively. The spatial domain of the predictor is determined using the Evaluation of Source and Travel-time of wave Energy reaching a Local Area (ESTELA) method. The regional component of the predictor includes the recent historical atmospheric conditions responsible for the swell wave component at the target point. The regional predictor component has a historical temporal coverage (n-days) different to the local predictor component (daily coverage). Principal component analysis is applied to the daily predictor in order to detect the dominant variability patterns and their temporal coefficients. Multivariate regression model, fitted at daily scale for different n-days of the regional predictor, determines the optimum historical coverage. The monthly wave predictor indices are selected applying a regression model using the monthly values of the principal components of the daily predictor, with the optimum temporal coverage for the regional predictor. The daily predictor can be used in wave climate projections, while the monthly predictor can help to understand wave climate variability or long-term coastal morphodynamic anomalies.

Picker travel time model for an order picking system with buffers

This article addresses a new class of picker-to-goods order picking systems, in which item retrieval is decoupled from order assembly by a pick-to-buffer technology. This decoupling of item retrieval and order assembly dramatically changes the dynamics of the pick process. Picking to buffers means that the picker is limited by the number of available buffers, rather than by the number of items or orders that may be transported simultaneously, so that order assembly must be carefully synchronized, in real-time, so the picker is not blocked by already filled buffers. This synchronization requirement forces consideration of the stochastic nature of the picking process in designing such systems, in particular, estimating the variance of pick times. This is in sharp contrast with traditional picker-to-goods systems, where estimates of mean pick times are sufficient for evaluating design performance. In this article, models for both expected value and variance of picker travel time are proposed and evaluated. The approximate analytic results are compared with results from detailed simulation and are sufficiently accurate to support design. The real-time synchronization of order assembly with picking is a topic of further research.