Experiences from the German value of time (VOT) and value of reliability (VOR) study

Abstract

Germany's Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is currently preparing the 2015 Federal Transport Investment Plan (BVWP). As part of this, it is updating the overall methodology including the cost-benefit analysis (CBA), which is used to evaluate the effects of hundreds of German infrastructure projects. The paper presents the survey of the first official estimation of the values of time (VOT) and values of reliability (VOR) for personal and business travel for Germany. The VOTs will replace a set of existing values, which were based on values from BVWP’92. The VORs were estimated for the first time, as they are not incorporated in the standard appraisal yet. This paper gives inside on the survey design, reports experiences made in the field phase and analyses the response behaviour of the participants. It shows that a rich dataset has been collected which builds the basis for further modelling.