The speed-flow relationships enable us to compute the time loss suffered by the other
road users if an additional PCU joins the traffic flow. In order to express this time loss in
monetary terms, we use recent value of time (VOT) studies for the Netherlands. Such
studies exist for both passenger and freight transport.
For passenger transport, a willingness-to-pay (WTP) study carried out for the
Netherlands by the Hague Consulting Group (HCG, 1990) provides empirical evidence
about monetary valuations of travel time savings or losses by travellers using private cars
and public transport and for different trip purposes. The methodology and the results
are discussed extensively by the HCG (1990), Bradley (1990) and Bradley and Gunn
(1991)*. Combining their findings with the relative importance of the different trip pur-
poses in Brussels in 1990 (Stratec, 1992), we obtain the results presented in Table 2. This
table gives the VOT for the year 2005. They are derived from the values for 1990 using
*For cars, the time-weighted average VOT is 5.3 ECU/h for commuting, 17.5 ECU/h for business trips and 4.2
ECU/h for other trips. For bus users, the values are 4.5 ECU/h, 17.5 ECU/h and 2.6 ECU/h, respectively.