In an era of constantly developing technologies and new solutions that improve and facilitate the creation, management, organization, and use of transport systems, increasing attention is being paid to the simultaneous need to seek broadly defined savings in transport processes. These savings can become tangible benefits for entire economies as well as for transport users, particularly for a specific group among them – passengers. Time, being a limited and non-renewable resource, is also a factor that must be sacrificed in the case of displacement.
For this reason, research into the economic valuation of time in transport, which supports attempts to estimate potential savings resulting from reduced travel time, should be considered justified. The purpose of this article is to introduce the theoretical approach to the aspect of time savings in transport, with particular emphasis on passenger transport, and to review practical solutions used in passenger transport that contribute to the reduction of transport time. It should be noted that the problem of the economic value of time in passenger transport is an issue that is still underestimated and rarely used both in the process of building and implementing transport policy and in the implementation of practical solutions.
In the economic dimension, time is not just a passing continuum without a beginning or an end, because it is considered from the perspective of an entity changing over time and the duration of human activities. Time, considered as a period in which human economic activity takes place, becomes an economic category. In economic theory, time can be described as a limited and non-renewable resource, the multidimensional value of which is not easy to estimate precisely.
Transport, being a human activity aimed at satisfying one of the basic needs – displacement, thus allows for overcoming space, which takes place by means of movement performed in a specific time. Transport can therefore be defined as a spatio-temporal change of transported persons or cargo carried out with the help of infrastructure and superstructure. The relationships between the distance covered in the transport process and the time needed to cover the space are mutual and proportional – displacement requires more time as the distance to be covered increases, and more time available allows for covering greater distances. It follows from the basic definitions of transport that the role of time in transport is crucial, and time is at the same time a necessary condition for the transport process to be realized. It is worth emphasizing that time is a resource that is considered in transport as lost for the sake of carrying out transport and related activities. The loss of time to satisfy transport needs means that the goal often becomes shortening transport time so that the saved part can be used for other activities.
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Source: Logistyka Magazine