Exploring Countermeasures from a Psychological Perspective to Create a Safe Driving Environment for Personal Mobility Devices

Abstract

The personal mobility device (E-Powered Personal Mobility Vehicle) has recently been attracting attention as a viable method of transportation for first and last mile travel, primarily due to its portability and ease of mobility. Although the size of its market is increasing rapidly, the number of accidents is also increasing rapidly. Suwon city, in particular, has the highest rate of traffic accidents linked with personal mobility among all of the local governments in the Gyeonggi Province in Korea, as of 2019. The annual average rate of increase has been as high as 151.7% over the past three years. The objective of this study was to analyze the usage of personal mobility devices among Suwon citizens through a questionnaire, which was then analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). We then examined the impact of psychological attitudes on the future use of personal mobility, and then derived future policy directions from all of the gathered data. According to a survey of Suwon citizens, the ratio of users who had no experience in using the devices was higher than that of those who had some experience in using them. The results of the survey on citizens’ satisfaction with the driving environment revealed that their overall satisfaction level was low, while the response rate regarding the need for safety equipment and systems was high, confirming that the current system had poor safety levels, which results in a very high risk of accidents. However, given that there were many positive responses regarding the users’ intentions to use personal mobility devices in the future, it seems that it is necessary to establish a safer driving environment in order to better incorporate these personal mobility devices into the city.