Who is inclined to embrace sustainable options in on-demand mobility?

Abstract

Shared on-demand mobility can be made more sustainable, but this often involves trade-offs in comfort and cost. For example, electric vehicles emit less CO2 but may require higher fares to compensate for charging time, while walking segments can reduce vehicle-kilometres travelled by avoiding detours, yet offer less comfort than door-to-door services. This study examines travellers’ willingness to choose more sustainable shared mobility options and identifies which users are most likely to make such choices. To do so, we apply an integrated choice and latent variable model to data collected via a discrete choice experiment (DCE) administrated to a sample of residents of the Greater Sydney Area, Australia. Specifically, respondents were presented with three shared mobility options, two of which required walking to reach pickup or dropoff points. Each option was described by a set of attributes, including waiting time, in-vehicle time, emission reduction relative to conventional vehicles, walking time and price. In addition to completing the DCE, respondents answered a series of attitudinal questions designed to capture key travel-related dimensions: safety of car, pro-walk orientation, time sensitivity, and variety-seeking behaviour. Results indicate that respondents who place high value on car safety are less likely to choose carbon neutral trips, whereas pro-walkers are more inclined to select shared mobility services that involve walking to PUDO points. The results are then used to compute willingness to pay values for five distinct user profiles. Our main findings are that (i) Users are generally willing to pay a higher fare to reduce emissions; (ii) Personalized sustainability options yield greater participation and emission reductions than uniform policies; and (iii) Regular public transport users show higher willingness to walk, highlighting potential synergies between on-demand mobility and transit.