Highway User Travel Time Evaluation

Improved highway networks result in net benefits to society, of which the reduction in travel time is one of the most important. Similarly, the delay in travel due to construction and maintenance operations represents a real cost to users. Assignment of the value of time in the cases of both benefit and cost involves judgment, as individuals value time differently and adjust for travel time changes in various ways. Values based on wage rates traditionally have been used because they are convenient, but an alternative approach based on purchase of leisure time is proposed. A full life-cycle cost assessment of a project requires an evaluation of future savings in travel time projected over a project’s lifetime, as well as delay costs associated with construction and subsequent maintenance operations. Due to the economic, as well as social complexity of user travel time, alternative measures of valuation and its network effects need to be considered.