Scale and context effects in the valuation of transport safety

How can willingness-to-pay-based values of safety for public transport modes, such as London's Underground railway system, be expected to relate to the corresponding value for road safety? This article reports results which suggest that such values should be set at a substantial premium in relation to their roads counterpart. However, this premium appears to derive entirely from considerations of control, voluntariness, and responsibility, and, contrary to popular wisdom, apparently owesnothing whatsoever to the possibility of large-scale “catastrophic” accidents on modes such as the Underground.

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