Encouraging shared and pooled-use automated vehicle mode choice—what users are sensitive to what instruments?

Abstract

In recent years, the body of literature on automated vehicles (AV) regarding simulation, user acceptance, and accompanying research on pilot projects has increased substantially. However, studies investigating the relationship between user characteristics and preference of shared or pooled-use AV, such as automated taxis or automated shuttles, mainly investigate socioeconomic or mobility characteristics of potential users. Further, there are no studies on user-type sensitivity toward instruments fostering the uptake of shared and pooled-use AV. The aim of our study is to contribute to fill this gap, to provide important knowledge for decision-makers to develop transport policies designed to foster future sharing of AV. To this end, we re-analyze data from a choice experiment with 709 participants together with individual user characteristics, collected within the Swiss Household Energy Demand Survey. Specifically, we analyze the role of socioeconomic and mobility characteristics, attitudes and values regarding sensitivity toward policy-relevant push and pull instruments to foster shared and pooled-use AV mode choice. We show that different types of user characteristics have an impact on AV mode preference and on the sensitivity toward the categories and types of instruments tested. Furthermore, we show that it is worthwhile to differentiate between short-term mobility decisions on single trips and long-term mobility decisions, concerning purchase decisions for AV or subscriptions to AV-related mobility services.