Abstract
Innovations in transportation and communications technologies influence the development of cities and how people move through them. Since the widespread adoption of smartphones, mobility and information and communication technology (ICT) have become increasingly interconnected, and there may be a possibility for mobile technologies to nudge, or influence, individuals to travel using sustainable, and collective modes. It remains unclear whether social, financial, or ICT incentives would be effective to nudge the use of sustainable modes. The objective of the study is to understand the reasons affecting modal choices and how the use of ICTs and personal opinions and attitudes influence the decision-making process. A discrete choice model is used to consider five transportation alternatives including three single modes, namely bicycle, transit, and car, and two multimodal possibilities, bicycle and transit as well as park and ride (car and transit). The target population for this study are Utrecht University employees, who travel to a large university campus located in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The results of the person-based mode-choice model demonstrate that strong correlations exist between the kinds of mobile applications individuals use, their attitudes towards travel, their personal characteristics and their transportation mode. No mobile application seems to favor the use of active modes, which cast doubts upon the use of ICT to promote sustainable transportation. However, social incentives may play an important role for certain groups as individuals who are influenced by their friends, family, and colleagues, are less likely to travel by car or to use park & ride facilities.
Highlights
1.1 Adopting Sustainable ModesInnovations in transportation and communications technologies influence the development of cities and how people move through them
The transportation choices that people make can have an impact on the overall sustainability of cities as well as on individuals’ health (Sallis et al 2004; Jacobson et al 2011; Wasfi et al 2013), and policy makers have developed significant efforts to promote the use of sustainable modes such as walking, cycling, and transit (Cervero et al 2002; Ogilvie et al 2004)
Besides the objective of better understanding the relationship between mode choice and the use of information and communication technology (ICT), another related goal of this study is to identify how different groups of people, characterized in terms of their attitudinal traits, approach modal choices
Summary
1.1 Adopting Sustainable ModesInnovations in transportation and communications technologies influence the development of cities and how people move through them. The transportation choices that people make can have an impact on the overall sustainability of cities as well as on individuals’ health (Sallis et al 2004; Jacobson et al 2011; Wasfi et al 2013), and policy makers have developed significant efforts to promote the use of sustainable modes such as walking, cycling, and transit (Cervero et al 2002; Ogilvie et al 2004). Policy makers, and transportation professionals face the important challenge of developing effective strategies to nudge individuals to travel using sustainable modes. While planning for sustainable travel often encompasses the promotion of multi-modal integration including the use of bicycles, rail, bus, and shared-cars, policy makers often face challenges in implementing systems that result in individuals’ adopting more environmentally and socially sustainable travel habits. Since the widespread adoption of smartphones in the early 2010s, mobility and information and communication technology (ICT) have become increasingly interconnected, and in some cases mobile technologies are being used to promote sustainable travel (Sunio and Schmöcker 2017)
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