Browsing by Author "Hensher, David A."

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Characterising public transport shifting to active and private modes in South American capitals during the COVID-19 pandemic
    (2022) Vallejo-Borda, Jose Agustin; Giesen, Ricardo; Basnak, Paul; Reyes, Jose P.; Lira, Beatriz Mella; Beck, Matthew J.; Hensher, David A.; Ortuzar Salas, Juan De Dios; CEDEUS (Chile)
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    Estimating the Value of Risk Reduction for Pedestrians in the Road Environment: An Exploratory Analysis
    (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2011) Hensher, David A.; Rose, John M.; de Dios Ortuzar, Juan; Rizzi, Luis I.
    In recent years there has been a re-focus on the valuation of a statistical life from the ex post or human capital method to an ex ante willingness to pay (WTP) approach. This is in part a recognition that we need to focus on establishing the amount, ex ante, that individuals are willing to pay to reduce the risk of exposure to circumstances that might lead to death or degree of injury in the road environment. This study sets out a framework in which to identify the degree of preference heterogeneity in WTP of pedestrians to avoid being killed or injured. A stated choice experiment approach is developed. The empirical setting is a choice of walking route for a particular trip that a sample of pedestrians periodically undertakes in Australia. Mixed logit models are estimated to obtain the marginal (dis)utilities associated with each influence on the choice amongst the attribute packages offered in the stated choice scenarios. These conditional estimates are used to obtain the WTP distributions for fatality and classes of injury avoidance, which are then aggregated to obtain estimates for pedestrians of the value of risk reduction (VRR).
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    Estimating the willingness to pay and value of risk reduction for car occupants in the road environment
    (PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2009) Hensher, David A.; Rose, John M.; de Dios Ortuzar, Juan; Rizzi, Luis I.
    In recent years there has been a re-focus on the valuation of a statistical life from the ex post or human capital method to an ex ante willingness to pay (WTP) approach. This is in part a recognition that we may have been undervaluing the cost of fatalities and injuries to society associated with crashes, but also a strong belief in the need to focus on establishing the amount, ex ante, that individuals are willing to pay to reduce the risk of exposure to circumstances that might lead to death or degree of injury on the road network. This study has developed a framework in which to identify the degree of preference heterogeneity in willingness to pay by individuals who are drivers or passengers in cars to avoid being killed or injured. A stated choice experiment approach is developed. The empirical setting is a choice of route for a particular trip that a sample of individuals periodically undertakes in Australia. The particular trip is described in enough detail to provide the respondent with a familiar market environment, providing all the relevant background information required for making a decision. Mixed logit models are estimated to obtain the marginal (dis)utilities associated with each influence on the choice amongst the attribute packages offered in the stated choice scenarios. These estimates are used to obtain the WTP distributions for fatality and injury avoidance, which are then aggregated to obtain estimates of the value of risk reduction (VRR), of which the fatality class is also known as the value of a statistical life (VSL). (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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    Experience as a conditioning effect on choice: Does it matter whether it is exogenous or endogenous?
    (2021) Hensher, David A.; Balbontin Tahnuz, Camila; Greene, William H.; Swait, Jofre
    Previous choice studies have proposed a way to condition the utility of each alternative in a choice set on experience with the alternatives accumulated over previous periods, defned either as a mode used or not in a most recent trip, or the mode chosen in their most recent trip and the number of similar one-way trips made during the last week. The paper found that the overall statistical performance of the mixed logit model improved signifcantly, suggesting that this conditioning idea has merit. Experience was treated as an exogenous infuence linked to the scale of the random component, and to that extent it captures some amount of the heterogeneity in unobserved efects, purging them of potential endogeneity. The current paper continues to investigate the matter of endogeneity versus exogeneity. The proposed approach implements the control function method through the experience conditioning feature in a choice model. We develop two choice models, both using stated preference data. The paper extends the received contribution in that we allow for the endogenous variable to have an impact on the attributes through a two stage method, called the Multiple Indicator Solution, originally implemented in a diferent context and for a single (quality) attribute, in which stage two is the popular control function method. In the frst stage, the entire utility expression associated with all observed attributes is conditioned on the prior experience with an alternative. Hence, we are capturing possible correlates associated with each and every attribute and not just one selected attribute. We fnd evidence of potential endogeneity. The purging exercise however, results in both statistical similarities and diferences in time and cost choice elasticities and mean estimates of the value of travel time savings. We are able to identify a very practical method to correct for possible endogeneity under experience conditioning that will encourage researchers and practitioners to use such an approach in more advanced non-linear discrete choice models as a matter of routine.
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    Identifying differences in willingness to pay due to dimensionality in stated choice experiments: a cross country analysis
    (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2009) Rose, John M.; Hensher, David A.; Caussade, Sebastian; Ortuzar, Juan de Dios; Jou, Rong Chang
    This paper explores the influence of both cultural and socio-economic characteristics on the perception of complexity and cognitive load associated with stated choice (SC) experiments. Complexity is analysed in terms of five design dimensions which were systematically varied according to a macro experimental design. To study the influence of cross country differences on willingness to pay estimates, we combined datasets collected in Sydney, Santiago de Chile and Taichung city in Taiwan, all of them related to an equivalent route choice experiment. Several mixed logit models were specified and estimated; our results show that design dimensions do have an impact on the behavioural outputs of discrete choice models estimated on SC data. However, these influences seem to be data-specific, suggesting that the impact of design dimensions upon SC Outcomes may be local and not necessarily transferable across different Countries and cultures. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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    Impact of COVID-19 on the number of days working from home and commuting travel: A cross-cultural comparison between Australia, South America and South Africa
    (2021) Balbontin Tahnuz, Camila; Hensher, David A.; Beck, Matthew J.; Giesen, Ricardo; Basnak, Paul; Vallejo Borda, Jose Agustin; Venter, Christoffel
    The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we go about our daily lives in ways that are unlikely to return to the pre-COVID-19 levels. A key feature of the COVID-19 era is likely to be a rethink of the way we work and the implications on commuting activity. Working from home (WFH) has been the 'new normal' during the period of lockdown, except for essential services that require commuting. In recognition of the new normal as represented by an increasing amount of WFH, this paper develops a model to identify the incidence of WFH and what impact this could have on the number of weekly commuting trips. Using data collected in eight countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and South Africa), we developed a Poisson regression model for the number of days individuals worked from home during the pandemic. Simulated scenarios quantify the impact of the different variables on the probability of WFH by country. The findings provide a reference point as we continue to undertake similar analysis at different points through time during the pandemic and after when restrictions are effectively removed.
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    Mobility as a Service users: insights from a trial in Sydney
    (2023) Smith, Göran; Hensher, David A.; Ho, Chinh; Balbontín Tahnuz, Camila
    The positive effects that Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is envisioned to have on transport can only be reaped if people are using MaaS. Yet, the understanding of the user perspective on MaaS is incomplete and primarily based on experiments with non-users. To address this shortcoming, this paper reports user experiences from a trial of a high-level MaaS service in Sydney, Australia. Based on questionnaires and interviews, it analyses who participated in the trial and why, and whether the trial experience satisfied their motives. The contribution to the literature on MaaS is three-fold. Firstly, most of the people that participated in the trial were frequent users of both public transport and private cars. This supports the notion that multi-modal travellers are likely early adopters of MaaS and contradicts the fear that MaaS does not appeal to private car users. Secondly, a desire to contribute to innovation and curiosity about MaaS were the main motives for signing up for the trial, which highlights the important role an inviting setting for experimentation, such as a trial, can play in stimulating MaaS adoption. Thirdly, many participants struggled with making the trialled service work for them and on average they seemed to value the support and feedback functions higher than other service features. This underscores the novelty of MaaS, compared to existing service models, and reiterates the notion that more than an app and a few subscription plans is needed to make MaaS useful for users.
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    Profiling future passenger transport initiatives to identify the growing role of active and micro-mobility modes
    (2024) Hensher, David A.; Wei, Edward; Liu, Wen; Balbontín Tahnuz, Camila
    There is growing interest in recognising the role that active and micro-mobility modes play in the full suite of modal-based activities. While the idea of the 'next normal' since the heady days of COVID-19 remains unclear, there are signs that living locally and the impact of increased working from home, has generated greater interest in active travel and micro-mobility for local trips, but also as ways to access and/or egress modes for longer trips. A new travel and mobility survey has been designed in which revealed and stated preference data are collected to identify current and future interest in using motorised and non-motorised modes in a typical week. It considers mode use for all stages of a door-to-door journey in an extensive number of trip profiles. Trip frequency over a 7-day week is much more informative than the more traditional choice of a mode survey approach for a typical day. We estimate a series of negative binomial models on the stated preference (SP) scenario data to gain an understanding of the role that active and micro-mobility modes play as access, egress, and linehaul modes in an origin-destination trip. The descriptive profiles and estimated models provide a way to identify and hence focus the treatment of active and micro-mobility modes in government policy settings designed to support the move to more sustainable modes for all local passenger trips. The modes showing the most potential from the SP inquiry include EV car driver, car passenger, walk and E-bike/E-Scooter, if external conditions allow (i.e., similar to SP scenarios when external restrictions are removed). This growing interest in non-public transport opportunities looks like adding challenges to growing public transport patronage.
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    Working from home 22 months on from the beginning of COVID-19: What have we learned for the future provision of transport services
    (2023) Hensher, David A.; Beck, Matthew J.; Balbontin Tahnuz, Camila
    COVID-19 has delivered an unintended positive consequence through working from home (WFH). While it may be some time until we are able to indicate, with some confidence, the impact that WFH will have on traffic congestion and crowding on public transport, there is a sense already that it is a game changer, and indeed is one of the most effective policy levers that the transport sector has had for many years in 'managing' the performance of the transport network. This paper draws on multiple ways of survey data that have been collected since March 2020 when the pandemic first resulted in severe restrictions in Australia. We present the evidence up to December 2021 on the incidence of WFH in two geographical jurisdiction - the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area (GSMA) and South-East Queensland (SEQ) -and how it has been received by employees and employers from the height of restrictions up to a period when restrictions were relaxed, followed by further lockdowns throughout Australia. We show what this might mean for work productivity, lifestyle, and the changing pref-erences for passenger modes. With a growing preference, within some occupation classes, to WFH 1-2 days a week, and a good spread through the weekdays, we discuss what this means for the way we analyse the impact of transport initiatives on the performance of the transport network with a particular emphasis on the growth in suburbanisation of transport improvements, less costly service and infrastructure improvements, and the changing role of public transport.