The Value of Time

Gordon Price, after exploring two scenarios for justifying transportation infrastructure improvements (one for autos and one for mass transit), points out the discrepancy in how time is viewed in both scenarios:

In these two scenarios, time is treated completely differently. In one, delay is a cost; in the other, delay is a saving.

Why is this?

Using the imagined cost savings of eliminating a few minutes from hundreds of thousands of commutes to justify expansion seems strange. The money isn’t real! And it certainly doesn’t find it’s way back to the funding agency in any meaningful way. Infrastructure is not the magic answer to all our problems. We need to be more critical about evaluating the real value of our projects and only moving forward with those that actually create value.