Riding personal mobility vehicles on the road: an analysis of the intentions of Chinese users

Abstract

In China, there are no road rights for personal mobility vehicles (PMVs), but sales of PMVs in China are rapidly increasing, and at present, a large group of PMV users has been formed. Research on the demand and intentions of PMV users holds great significance for road safety and policy formulation. This research adopts an online questionnaire based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model and introduces perceived risk, product satisfaction, and policy measures to construct a model of the impact mechanism of user intentions to ride PMVs on the road. First, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 418 PMV users in China, and the factors affecting their intentions to ride PMVs on the road were analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM). The results from analyzing the questionnaires show that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, perceived risk and policy measures have a significant positive impact on user intentions to ride PMVs on the road. However, product satisfaction has no significant impact on user intentions to ride PMVs on the road, but through risk perception, it has a mediating effect on user intentions. In addition, there are four adjustment variables: gender, age, educational level and experience witnessing others riding PMVs on the road. The results of multigroup SEM analysis show that there are significant differences in the path of user intentions to ride PMVs on the road. Second, compared with other surveys obtained from the Internet among 307 non-users and non-owners of PMVs, there are significant differences in perceived risk, policy measures and intentions to ride PMVs on the road. Implications for policy-making and suggestions for future research are discussed.