Micro-mobility may alleviate a number of challenges facing big cities today, and offer a pathway toward more sustainable urban transportation. This research investigates what factors influence university students’ intention to use an electric scooter sharing service. A theoretical framework adapting the theory of planned behaviour was used. Survey responses from 471 university students in Taiwan were collected. Data were analysed using factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Respondents with different levels of usage intention and in different stages of behavioural change display distinct reasoning patterns. Lack of perceived compatibility with personal values, mobility needs and life-style particularly drives students with low usage intention and pre-contemplators, who show signs of “green hypocrisy”. Awareness-knowledge about the sharing system and environmental values influence the formation of usage intention in indirect ways. This study is intended to be a reference for subsequent conceptual and empirical work on e-scooter sharing in particular, and shared mobility with other types of powered two-wheelers.

Adoption intentions for micro-mobility – Insights from electric scooter sharing in Taiwan

Electric mobility offers a low cost of travel along with energy and harmful emissions savings. Nevertheless, a comprehensive literature review is missing for the prospects of electric vehicles in developing countries. Such an overview would be instrumental for policymakers to understand the barriers and opportunities related to different types of electric vehicles (EVs). Considering the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic review was performed of the electronic databases Google Scholar and Web of Science for the years 2010–2020. The electric four-wheelers, hybrid electric vehicles and electric two-wheeler constituted the electric vehicles searched in the databases. Initially, 35 studies identified in the Web of Science that matched the criteria were studied. Later, 105 other relevant reports and articles related to barriers and opportunities were found by using Google Scholar and studied. Results reveal that electric four-wheelers are not a feasible option in developing countries due to their high purchase price. On the contrary, electric two-wheelers may be beneficial as they come with a lower purchase price.

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8659450/file/8659452.pdf

Prospects of Electric Vehicles in the Developing Countries: A Literature Review

Shared micromobility services (e-scooters, bikes, e-bikes) have rapidly gained popularity in the past few years, yet little is known about their usage. While most previous studies have analysed single modes, only few comparative studies of two modes exist and none so-far have analysed competition or mode choice at a high spatiotemporal resolution for more than two modes. To this end, we develop a generally applicable methodology to model and analyse shared micromobility competition and mode choice using widely accessible vehicle location data. We apply this methodology to estimate the first comprehensive mode choice models between four different micromobility modes using the largest and densest empirical shared micromobility dataset to-date. Our results suggest that mode choice is nested (dockless and docked) and dominated by distance and time of day. Docked modes are preferred for commuting. Hence, docking infrastructure for currently dockless modes could be vital for bolstering micromobility as an attractive alternative to private cars to tackle urban congestion during rush hours. Furthermore, our results reveal a fundamental relationship between fleet density and usage. A “plateau effect” is observed with decreasing marginal utility gains for increasing fleet densities. City authorities and service providers can leverage this quantitative relationship to develop evidence-based micromobility regulation and optimise their fleet deployment, respectively.

Explaining shared micromobility usage, competition and mode choice by modelling empirical data from Zurich, Switzerland

Micromobility vehicles, and especially free-floating electric scooters (FFES), have been thriving over the past couple of years, Paris being the most important market worldwide In this paper, we first define micromobility Then, we present the design and results of an extensive face-to-face road survey among e-scooter (ES) users in Paris (N = 459, F(men) = 68%) Results indicate that ES users rarely own their proper microvehicle, are mostly men, aged 18–29, and have a high educational level They are not less motorized than the general population and use ES occasionally Their main motivation is travel time savings followed by playfulness and money savings However, users seeking money savings are not frequent riders They shifted mainly from walking and public transportation (72%) and few have increased their total mobility by making new trips (6%) Findings can be useful to researchers, policy makers, and FFES operators especially in the context of COVID pandemics

Who is using e-scooters and how? Evidence from Paris

This article has taken up an issue concerning the influence of the implementation of electromobility assumptions on reduction of air pollution in cities in terms of sustainable urban transport systems. The essential nature of the subject is confirmed by the following figures: transport is responsible for almost 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and is the main cause of air pollution in cities, almost 90% of city dwellers in the EU are exposed to levels of air pollutants deemed harmful by the WHO, and approximately 95% of vehicles on European roads still use fossil fuels. Therefore, the implemented transport policy, both in the international and domestic aspect of particular countries, is facing the need to significantly reduce the negative influence of transport on people and the environment. Electromobility has become one of the concepts that makes it possible to achieve this goal. Its main objective is to reduce emissions of harmful substances into the environment by deploying electric vehicles (EVs). Research conducted by the authors showed that public transport, apart from the obvious effect of decreased number of private vehicles and decreased congestion, can contribute to reduced air pollutant emissions and become a significant driver for the implementation of electromobility in cities. However, the achievement of this goal depends on taking appropriate actions not only in the transport branch but also in other sectors of economy. The following research methods were applied in the article: literature analysis, documentary method, case study, and mathematical methods. The research area was the city of Szczecin, Poland.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/3/1052/pdf

Environmental Effects of Electromobility in a Sustainable Urban Public Transport

Powered two-wheelers for sustainable mobility: A review of consumer adoption of electric motorcycles

Shared parking has recently emerged as an effective means of parking management in urban areas. The success of implementing shared parking necessitates understanding the factors which affect people’s intention to use shared parking. In this study, we used the Combined Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior (C-TAM-TPB) as a theoretical framework to investigate the intention to use shared parking from the perspective of parking space suppliers and parking space demanders (drivers). Hypothesis testing using the partial least-square (PLS) method of structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed using an empirical assessment of the shared parking schemes in Taipei City. Our results indicate that perceived control and self-efficacy pertaining to participation in shared parking were the most influential factors for parking space demanders, whereas the influence of significant others was the most influential factor for parking suppliers. We also found that the attitude of potential users toward shared parking can strongly affect their intention to participate, whether as a demander or a supplier. Our findings could help to identify the intrinsic factors affecting one’s intention to participate in shared parking schemes. Our findings could also help government agencies and system operators to promote the notion of shared parking to the public.

Investigating factors that affect the intention to use shared parking: A case study of Taipei City

近年來，電動機車共享機制在全世界普遍推廣，臺灣也不例外，然而，過去研究甚少深入探討消費者對於電動機車共享之使用意圖。本研究探討潛在使用者支持和反對使用電動機車共享的理由、使用意圖、潛在旅次目的和運具轉移情形，以及受訪者對行動共享和電動車輛的經驗和態度。本研究藉由開放式問卷調查探討消費者使用電動機車共享的支持和反對理由，採用質性和量化方法分析所收集在台灣就讀大學的本國生與外籍生的問卷資料。研究結果支持後續探討在不同情境下跨國與不同文化背景消費者之電動機車共享使用意圖。消費者對於電動機車共享使用的支持與反對原因具有不同的結構和重點，應該進行區別調查。旅次運具使用調查發現使用電動機車共享的可能潛在後果隨文化背景不同。本研究結果為運輸研究人員，規劃人員和決策者提供了進一步調查電動機車共享潛在影響的基礎，後續也可以根據本研究的結果發展量化研究。

Exploring Consumer Reasoning in Usage Intention for E-Scooter Sharing

The study deals with the fleet allocation problem in public electric vehicle (EV) systems with consideration of demand uncertainty. The problem aims to determine the optimal number of EVs deployed at each station and the objective is to minimize the total system cost. We propose a genetic algorithm (GA) with an event-based simulator to solve this problem. To consider demand uncertainty, an event-based simulator is developed and embedded in the GA. This study generates and solves a number of instances based on the historical data obtained from an EV-Sharing system operator in Sun Moon Lake national park in Taiwan. We compare the solutions of the GA with those of an enumeration method. The results show that the GA is able to obtain the optimal solution for more than 70% of the instances. Even when the GA fails to find the optimum, the gaps between optimal solutions and heuristic solutions are less than 0.1%. Moreover, all solutions are found within a reasonable amount of time. The proposed solution approach provides decision support for the fleet allocation in EV-sharing systems. 

Timo Eccarius

Papers

Adoption intentions for micro-mobility – Insights from electric scooter sharing in Taiwan

Powered two-wheelers for sustainable mobility: A review of consumer adoption of electric motorcycles

Investigating factors that affect the intention to use shared parking: A case study of Taipei City

Exploring Consumer Reasoning in Usage Intention for E-Scooter Sharing

Genetic algorithm with an event-based simulator for solving the fleet allocation problem in an electric vehicle sharing system