Commuting costs of "leap-frog" newtown development in Seoul

The study aims to estimate commuting costs of the "leap-frog" new town deve lopment in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. In order to measure the commuting c osts of the "leap-frog" new town development, we assume a contiguous new to wn construction to Seoul, allowing new town development within Seoul's Gree nbelt, Total VMT savings from the contiguous new town development to Seoul are 744 million km/year, Average commuting distance would be shortened by 1.5% for every worker of the SMA if 196 thousand workers (2.7% of total jobs) and 4 20 thousand residents (5.7% of total commuters) in new towns have been relo cated into hypothetical new towns. Total commuting costs associated with th e leapfrog new town development are $42.45 million per year for out-of-pock et costs ($5.82 per commuter), or $255 million per year ($34.88 per commute r) including value of travel time, The biggest benefit goes to the workers who live or work in the new towns w ith the "contiguous new town development" scenario. The average work trip d istances of residents and workers of new towns would have substantially dec reased by 27% and 17%, if the five new towns had been developed contiguousl y to Seoul, VKT savings for the residents and workers of the new towns are 1141 million km/year and 256 million km/year, respectively. New town reside nts would gain commuting cost savings of $155/year excluding the value of t ravel time and of $927/year including the value of travel time by the reloc ation of new towns towards Seoul, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.