Train Commuters' Scheduling Preferences: Evidence from a Large-Scale Peak Avoidance Experiment

Stefanie Peer, Jasper Knockaert and Erik Verhoef
Additional contact information
Jasper Knockaert: VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands

No 15-078/VIII, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: This discussion paper led to a publication in 'Transportation Science' .

We study the trip scheduling preferences of train commuters in a real-life setting. The underlying data have been collected during large-scale peak avoidance experiment conducted in the Netherlands, in which participants could earn monetary rewards for traveling outside peak hours. The experiment included ca. 1000 participants and lasted for about 6 months. Holders of an annual train pass were invited to join the experiment, and a customized smartphone app was used to measure the travel behavior of the participants. We find that compared to the pre-measurement, the relative share of peak trips decreased by 22% during the reward period, and by 10% during the post-measurement. By combining multiple complementary data sources, we are able to specify and estimate (MNL and panel latent class) departure time choice models. These yield plausible estimates for the monetary values that participants attach to reducing travel time, schedule delays, the number of transfers, crowdedness, and unreliability.

Keywords: departure time decisions; scheduling; peak avoidance experiment; rail; trains; revealed preference data; smartphone app; GPS data; value of travel time; valuation of schedule delays; valuation of comfort; crowding costs; valuation of reliability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C25 C90 D01 D80 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-07-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-exp, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://papers.tinbergen.nl/15078.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Train commuters’ scheduling preferences: Evidence from a large-scale peak avoidance experiment (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tin:wpaper:20150078

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tinbergen Office +31 (0)10-4088900 ().