Assessing the willingness to use personal e-transporters (PeTs): Results from a cross-national survey in nine European cities

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

  • Tim De Ceunynck - , Vias Institute (Autor:in)
  • Gert Jan Wijlhuizen - , SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research (Autor:in)
  • Aslak Fyhri - , TØI Institute of Transport Economics (Autor:in)
  • Regine Gerike - , Professur für Mobilitätssystemplanung (Autor:in)
  • Dagmar Köhler - , POLIS (Autor:in)
  • Alice Ciccone - , TØI Institute of Transport Economics (Autor:in)
  • Atze Dijkstra - , SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research (Autor:in)
  • Emmanuelle Dupont - , Vias Institute (Autor:in)
  • Mario Cools - , University of Liege, KU Leuven, Hasselt University (Autor:in)

Abstract

In the last few years, there has been a strong increase in the interest in and usage of so-called “Personal e-Transporters” (PeTs), also referred to as micro-mobility devices. Empirical research on the usage of PeTs as a transport mode is virtually non-existent, especially within Europe. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating people’s motivations and barriers to the use of PeTs. To this end, a behavioural survey was conducted in nine European cities. A representative sample of approximately 250 respondents per city was collected, resulting in a dataset, after data cleaning, of 2159 observations. Generally, respondents’ perceptions of PeTs are not (yet) very favourable. Respondents’ perceptions related to cost and safety received the lowest scores. The results from the transtheoretical model of behavioural change show that a variety of factors influence the stage of behavioural change in which the respondents can be situated. These factors include cycling norms, current walking behaviour, walking attitudes, pro-environmental orientation, gender, PeTs possession, cycling obstacles and subscription to a bicycle sharing service. An important strength of this study lies in the international nature and the size of the data collection, ensuring the reliability and transferability of the results to other cities. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first large-scale survey to investigate people’s travel behaviour related to the usage of PeTs and possibly the only large-scale investigation that took place before the deployment of shared e-scooters in many European cities. Furthermore, an explicit link is made with other modes of active transport (walking and cycling).

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer3844
FachzeitschriftSustainability (Switzerland)
Jahrgang13
Ausgabenummer7
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 1 Apr. 2021
Peer-Review-StatusJa