Social Benefits of IVHS Systems

Using national time diary estimates it is calculated that annually about 750 billion dollars of time value is devoted to travel in the United States. Time commuting to work has fallen modestly in the last 20 ILLEGIBLE Nevertheless, certain urban areas have very long average commutes, and a major benefit of IVHS systems would be in the reduction of these travel times.

Most research on travel time considers average commuting time. Yet a mean preserving reduction in the dispersion of travel time will create social benefits too, since the conditional loss function is convex from below. New technology to reduce “excessive” delays even at the cost of a somewhat longer expected hip duration is thus of value.