THE EMPIRICAL ESTIMATION OF PREFERENCE-BASED VALUES OF SAFETY

The findings of three related studies carried out in the UK on preference-based values of safety in four different contexts, namely roads, rail, domestic fires and fires in public places are presented. Willingness to pay among participants in the study was not necessarily related to the size of risk reduction under consideration. The attitudes of the participants to safety are discussed. The questions asked of the respondents were broken down into a four-stage process to simplify the money/risk trade-off analysis. This produced more consistent results and enabled the DETR to revise the willingness to pay fatality figure upwards to 1.089 million at 1999 prices. The relativities study showed that road safety was considered a higher priority than rail, domestic or public fire safety. A follow-up study after the Ladbroke Grove rail accident which concentrated on rail users in southern England indicated a marked rise in the concern about rail safety. For the covering abstract see ITRD E111972.