Factors Affecting E-bike Mode Choice in a Medium-sized Chinese City

Abstract

Chinese medium-sized cities have different travel characteristics compared to big cities. And as the rapid development of e-bike in China, some problems such as transportation safety has been discussed by scholars. This paper examines the factors affecting residents’ travel mode choice in medium-sized city using travel survey data collected from residents in Zhongshan city. An estimated nested logit model of travel mode choice reveals that: (1) Older people prefer to travel by e-bikes than younger people. (2) Residents who own e-bikes tend to choose e-bikes, while not other vehicles. And the profession of people who prefer to travel by electric bicycle the white collar and blue collar. (3) About the attitude of Zhongshan residents to choose the way of transportation, the e-bike is considered the least safe, and electric bicycle users are concerned about the improvement of bicycle lanes. (4) The influence of built environment in the place of origin and the place of destination on the choice of e-bikes is different. (5) There is a substitution effect between e-bikes and traditional bicycles. The results strongly suggest that e-bike is a kind of important transportation in Chinese medium-sized city, and it is likely to regulate e-bike by transportation policies.