Shared Autonomous Vehicles Competing with Shared Electric Bicycles: A Stated-Preference Analysis

Understanding the factors that affect the uptake of emerging transport modes is critical for understanding if and how they will be used once they are implemented. In this study, we undertook a stated-preference analysis to understand the factors that affect the use of shared autonomous vehicles and shared personal mobility (micromobility) as competing modes on a university campus in Korea. We applied a binary logit model, which included time and cost variables as well as the perceptions of convenience (in-car congestion and availability) and safety. For autonomous vehicles, the cost- and time-related demand elasticities were estimated to be -0.45 and -0.25, respectively, while the cost elasticity for shared electric bicycles was -0.42. The elasticities of perceived convenience (availability) and safety for the shared electric bicycle system were estimated to be 0.72 and 0.29, respectively. Finally, the elasticity for perceived convenience (in-car congestion) of the shared autonomous vehicle was 0.42. Our results show that there is an innate preference for shared autonomous vehicles when these are compared to shared personal mobility, and that the effect of subjective variables (convenience and safety) on the use of emerging transport modes is as important as traditional cost and time variables.

Automated summary

The study shows that there is a preference for shared autonomous vehicles over shared personal mobility on a university campus in Korea, and that subjective factors such as convenience and safety have as significant an impact on the use of emerging transport modes as traditional cost and time variables.