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This paper studies intertemporal changes in the value of travel time (VTT) and investigates whether the change of VTT over time can be studied based on national VTT data, collected at two points in time. We use repeated national VTT data from the Netherlands and Sweden, collected 13 and 14 years apart. The results show mostly a declining VTT for a given income level. The results show also a large within-country heterogeneity across modes and purposes, in the cross-sectional income elasticity of the VTT, and in its development over time. The explanation most consistent with our results and those of others is that the VTT has in fact increased due to income increases, but that the repeated stated choice data cannot detect this given the data, methodology and population changes. In particular, it seems that the response rate has dropped considerably in the later surveys partly due to a higher share of (busy) respondents declining to be recruited. The main contribution of this paper is to document the differences between the studies carried out in different years, indicating the reasons why it is difficult to identify temporal changes in the VTT. ; Funding Agencies|Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI); Swedish governmental agency VINNOVA

Car purchase taxes in The Netherlands are among the highest in the EU. The Dutch government plans to gradually replace car purchase and ownership taxes by a national road user charging system (kilometre charge) in the period 2012 to 2016. As a result, new and second hand car prices in the Netherlands will drop up to 30%. Relatively little research has been conducted on the impacts of such large price changes on car ownership. Reduced car prices are likely to lead to an increase in car ownership. But consumers could also refrain from buying extra cars when they consider the extra operating costs resulting from the kilometre charge. This paper presents one of the few empirical studies to examine the effects of both (large) fixed and variable car cost changes on both car ownership and use. An internet survey among Dutch households was designed and conducted including stated intentions and stated preference experiments. We investigated whether households react more to present one-off fixed costs than to recurrent variable costs, for various specifications of car costs. Model analysis was conducted to derive fixed and variable price elasticities for private car ownership and effects of the kilometre charge. The study shows in their car purchase decisions, households react more strongly to a change in euro per year in fixed car costs than to a euro per year in variable car costs. Abolishing the Dutch car purchase tax while at the same time introducing a kilometre charge will lead to 2% rise in car ownership on the short to medium run (1-5 years).

This paper presents the estimation of a discrete freight transport chain choice model for Europe, which was developed for the European Union as part of the Transtools 3 project. The model describes nine different multi- and single mode chain alternatives of which three can be either container or non-containerised, and it segments freight into dry bulk, liquid bulk, containers and general cargo. The model was estimated on the basis of disaggregate data at the shipment level (Swedish CFS and French ECHO data). Several transport costs specifications and nesting structures were tested and elasticities compared with reference literature. It was found that freight models are characterised by heterogeneity, non-linearity in transport costs and hence Value of Times and non-constant rates of substitution. Not taking these elements into account will have consequences for the evaluation of transport policies using the freight transport model.