Willingness to pay for changes in travel time and work time: A stated choice experiment of US commuters

Studying the tradeoffs between commuting, working, and money—including the willingness to pay (WTP) for changes to travel time and work time—is of interest in both travel behavior research and transportation practice. Our study's objectives were to: (1) quantify WTP for travel time and work time changes; (2) measure preference heterogeneity in these time values; and (3) examine sensitivities to changes in income and travel cost. First, we conducted a stated choice experiment that added work time and income to traditional travel time and cost attributes, collecting data from 675 US adult commuters in late 2020. Second, we estimated pseudo panel mixed multinomial logit models with random and systematic preference heterogeneity. Average WTP was larger for travel time changes than for work time changes, although values varied across personal, household, and commute/work characteristics. Overall and on the margin, US commuters appear to dislike commuting more than they dislike working, a finding which differs from previous studies in Chile and Austria. Although future work could improve the realism of the choice experiment, our research offers a simple stated preference method to help work towards advancing an understanding of the values and tradeoffs involving both working and commuting.