Exploring the acceptable travel time concept in the US and European contexts. Results from Berkeley, CA and Delft, The Netherlands (PPT)

“Do people consider an acceptable travel time?” We raised this question in Milakis, Cervero, and van Wee (2015) to explore the validity of the acceptable travel time concept as a possible factor in the travel and destination decision-making process. Results from interviews with 20 subjects in Berkeley, CA supported this concept. In this paper we replicate the US study in Europe (Delft, The Netherlands) to (a) further test the acceptable travel time concept in European context and (b) compare results between Delft and Berkeley to gain more insights into this theoretical concept. Results of this study confirm the validity of the acceptable travel time concept. Also, additional evidence shows that acceptable travel time can vary with travel mode. Subjects in Delft have on average a higher acceptable commute time than subjects in Berkeley. Urban, transport as well as sociocultural factors might explain this variation in acceptable travel times.