Ex Post Estimation of Value-of-Time and Willingness to Pay for Shared Transport Services in Thessaloniki

Value-of-time (VOT) and willingness-to-pay (WTP) measures are valuable in a wide range of transport policies and planning applications. The purpose of the present research is to estimate these measures in Thessaloniki, where a pilot mobility scheme inspired by the concept of sharing economy is implemented. The pilot focuses on reducing the commuting trips from the eastern part of the city to the city centre by using a taxi-sharing service. A questionnaire including a stated-preference (SP) experiment has been developed and administered to a random sample of 90 people. The survey combines trip-based characteristics (mode, travel time, and travel cost), with socioeconomic characteristics, such as profession, education, and car ownership. Discrete choice models are developed within a methodological framework and the estimated coefficients have been used to estimate VOT. A second sample consisted of users of the pilot service is selected for the estimation of WTP through the development of a Price Sensitivity Model. The model results in a range of acceptable prices from 2.00 to 3.50€ for the taxi-sharing service use supporting the long-term sustainability of the service.