Although the value of travel time (VTT) is extensively used in transport
economics in order to conduct cost–benefit analysis and there have been
numerous studies estimating this information for different countries, transport
modes and type of users, there are very few estimates for the university students
commuting from their hometown to the university-town. This article presents a
VTT estimate for the students enrolled at the University of Trieste (Italy) based
on sequential approach which: (1) collects revealed preference data in order to
estimate a preliminary VTT; (2) generates C-efficient Bayesian designs pivoted
around the characteristics of homogenous segments of the population and (3)
administers an integrated revealed and stated preference questionnaire to a
selected sample. The estimate obtained on the basis of the combined revealed and
stated preference data ranges from 2.8 to 1.4e/h is significantly lower than the
estimates obtained on the bases of the revealed preference data only, which ranges
from 18 to 13e/h, and differs from the VTT for commuting to work reported in
the literature by a factor of about 6.
