New DfT Study Will Put A Value On The Time You Spend Traveling In The Digital Era

A new study launched by the Department for Transport (DfT) will provide up-to-date valuations of travel time savings and reliability in order to better appraise transport infrastructure schemes.

DfT has appointed Arup to manage and deliver market research for the study.  Arup will deliver the project in partnership with the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) at the University of Leeds, who will be responsible for the technical research and analysis, and Accent, who will undertake the data collection.

The new study follows the publication of scoping reports (here and here) by DfT in October 2013, which recommended that its values should be updated; the most recent UK national value of time study was conducted nearly 20 years ago, before the internet revolution and other changes in working and commuting practices.

The aim of the study is to provide up-to-date national average values of travel time savings.  It will also investigate the factors which cause variation in the values, and improve understanding of the uncertainties around these values. Values of reliability benefits and quality impacts such as relief of overcrowding will also be provided.

The new information will feed into the UK’s official transport analysis guidance, WebTAG, which mandates values of in-vehicle travel time savings for business, commuting and non-work travel for use in the assessment of publicly funded transport projects.