Is ‘referencing’ a remedy to hypothetical bias in value of time elicitation? Evidence from economic experiments

This paper demonstrates that commonly used methods for eliciting value of time can give downward bias and investigates whether this can be reversed by ‘referencing’ as has been suggested (e.g., by Hensher in Transp Res B 44:735–752, 2010), i.e. with attributes of choice alternatives pivoted around a recently made journey. Value-of-time choice experiments were conducted in two rounds. In the first round, real and hypothetical purchases of performance of a simple time-consuming task were done to assess hypothetical bias; in the second round, participants were asked to do hypothetical travel choices with and without ‘referencing’ to a specific occasion, to be able to test ‘referencing’ as a remedy to the bias confirmed in the first round. A negative hypothetical bias was found for allocation of time at another occasion than the present (but not for a decision concern allocation of time ‘here and now’). A striking result was held from the second round experiments: ‘referencing’ indeed affects responses, but by reducing the elicited implicit value of time, so any negative hypothetical bias that would exist without ‘referencing’ would have been further magnified by the ‘referencing’ design.     

Why do some motorbike riders wear a helmet and others don’t? Evidence from Delhi,India

Road traffic accident fatalities lead to important private and social costs in the metropolitan areas of most low and middle income countries. An important share of these fatalities is due to injuries to the head and the neck. Helmets can provide efficient protection, but many drivers do not use them. We focus on helmet use behavior among motorbike users in Delhi. We use a detailed data set collected for the purpose of the study. To guide our empirical analysis, we rely on a model in which drivers decide on self-protection and self-insurance. The empirical findings suggest that risk-averse drivers are more likely to wear a helmet and that this has no systematic effect on speed. Helmet use also increases with education. Drivers who show a higher awareness of road risks seem to be both more likely to wear a helmet and to speed less. Controlling for risk awareness, we observe that drivers tend to compensate between speed and helmet use. The results can provide a basis for awareness-raising policies. They also show that improvements to the road infrastructure risk leading to risk-compensating behavior.     

Integrating transport and land-use planning? How steering cultures in local authorities affect implementation of integrated public transport and land-use planning

Previous research has shown integrated planning to be important for achieving aims concerning more environmentally friendly transport operations, but less good at explaining prerequisites of implementation. This paper analyses how management and working practises in local authorities, here understood as steering cultures, affect implementation of integrated land-use and public transport planning approaches. The analysis builds on case studies of planning in two Swedish municipalities. These have developed two antithetical steering cultures, namely one that can be described as deliberative and one that can be described as sectorised. The paper describes the advantages and disadvantages of these steering cultures. The findings show the deliberative model to facilitate integration through advanced mechanisms of consensus and co-ordination between policy-makers and officials. The sectorised model has no such mechanisms, but this need not result in poor prospects of integrated planning. It is important for integrated planning approaches, whatever the steering culture, to be in line with the institutionalised norms and objectives by which planning practices are governed. Integration therefore needs a normative component, so as to ensure implementation. The important normative component in this context can be construed as discourses and rationales concerning transport and the urban development of which public transport forms part.     

How and why do men and women differ in their willingness to use automated cars? The influence of emotions across different age groups

Current research on willingness to use automated cars indicates differences between men and women, with the latter group showing lower usage intentions. This study aims at providing a first explanation of this effect. Research from other fields suggests that affective reactions might be able to explain behavioral intentions and responses towards technology, and that these affects vary depending on age levels. By examining a sample of 1603 participants representative for Germany (in terms of biological sex, age, and education) we found evidence that affective responses towards automotive cars (i.e., anxiety and pleasure) explain (i.e., mediate) the effect of biological sex on willingness to use them. Moreover, we found that these emotional processes vary as a function of respondent age in such a way that the differential effect of sex on anxiety (but not on pleasure) was more pronounced among relatively young respondents and decreased with participants’ age. Our results suggest that addressing anxiety-related responses towards automated cars (e.g., by providing safety-related information) and accentuating especially the pleasurable effects of automated cars (e.g., via advertising) reduce differences between men and women. Addressing the anxiety-related effects in order to reduce sex differences in usage intentions seems to be less relevant for older target groups, whereas promoting the pleasurable responses is equally important across age groups.