Travel choices in (e-)moped sharing systems: Estimating explanatory variables and the value of ride fee savings

Free-floating (e-)moped sharing systems are becoming increasingly popular and provide new ways of travel in urban areas. The vehicles offer the flexibility of one-way transportation, though the downside for service providers of free-floating shared fleet systems is that their operations may result in a spatial-temporal imbalance of the vehicle distribution within the system. The potential effectiveness of user-based relocation strategies depend on the trade-offs users make between (reduced) ride fees and (prolonged) walking times. It is therefore essential to establish the trade-offs exercised by users in the context of moped sharing systems. The authors elicit travel preferences and assess how vehicle choice is influenced by user characteristics, travel context and alternative-specific attributes by means of a choice experiment. The findings indicate that respondents in the Netherlands require a reduction of €0.02 of the ride fee for each additional walking minute required for accessing a vehicle. The application of this model demonstrates that vehicle availability, pricing, trip characteristics, and socioeconomic factors significantly drive adoption rates, emphasising the importance of understanding user preferences and thereby the factors shaping the acceptance and utilisation of e-moped sharing services. These findings offer essential implications for policymakers and operators, enabling them to tailor e-moped sharing services to diverse user segments as well as understanding the impact of policies, such as helmet mandates. The outcomes presented in this paper are likely to be applicable to other vehicle sharing systems with comparable design and management configurations.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2023.101021
• Record URL:
  • http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210539523000792
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/22105395
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Hoobroeckx, Tom
  • Cats, Oded
  • Shelat, Sanmay
  • Molin, Eric
• Publication Date: 2023-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 101021
• Serial:
  • Research in Transportation Business & Management
  • Volume: 50
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 2210-5395
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22105395

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fees; Mopeds; Savings; Travel behavior; Vehicle sharing
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01890907
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 24 2023 9:31AM