E-scooters and other mode trip chaining: Preferences and attitudes of university students

Abstract

Shared e-scooters are mostly used within or close to city centers and they are being seen as a tool for promoting intermodality while often they cover gaps of public transport networks. This study focuses on university students, since they constitute a large proportion of the shared e-scooters market share, and examines their willingness to use shared e-scooters for intermodal trips and their attitudes regarding issues of equity and safety. A survey of 594 university students in the city of Thessaloniki was conducted and their responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and discrete choice model analyses. The results show that as the distance from the city center increases, the levels of satisfaction drop for both the shared e-scooters availability and the quality of public transport services. Students support the opinion that rules should be set so that oblige e-scooter providers to allocate them in a way that the access is possible for the entire population of a city. The results of the discrete choice model analysis suggested that time and cost play a significant role in stated preferences and an intermodal trip including shared e-scooters becomes a preferred option for the students only when the travel time is much shorter (i.e., 20–30 min) comparing to the alternative. Also, transport modes currently used by students, significantly affected their choices. Finally, increased perceived safety of infrastructure and attitudes towards e-scooters increased the probability of preferring the e-scooter alternative. The results of the study pave the way for establishing policies and measures that can enhance the role of shared e-scooters in modern urban mobility systems.