The Association between ICT-Based Mobility Services and Sustainable Mobility Behaviors of New Yorkers

Hamid Mostofi

doi:10.3390/en14113064

Abstract

The energy consumption and emissions in the urban transportation are influenced not only by technical efficiency in the mobility operations but also by the citizens’ mobility behaviors including mode choices and modal shift among sustainable and unsustainable mobility modes. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can play an important role in the mobility behaviors of citizens, and it is necessary to study whether ICTs support sustainable mode choices like public transport and nonmotorized modes, which increase the total energy efficiency in the urban mobility and reduce traffic congestion and related emissions. This paper focuses on the two most popular ICT services in the urban transport, which are ATIS (Advanced Traveler Information Systems), and ridesourcing services. This study used the New York Citywide Mobility Survey (CMS) findings with a sample of 3346 participants. The associations between using these two ICT services and the mobility behaviors (mode choice with ATIS and modal shift to ridesourcing) are analyzed through a multinomial logistic regression and descriptive statistics, and the results are compared with similar international studies. The findings indicate that the respondents who use ATIS apps more frequently are more likely to use rail modes, bicycles, bus/shuttles, and rental/car sharing than private cars for their work trips. Moreover, the findings of the modal shift to ridesourcing indicate that the most replaced mobility modes by ridesourcing services are public transport (including rail modes and buses), taxis, and private cars, respectively.

Highlights

IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
This paper studies the percentage of modal shift from different mobility modes to ridesourcing services like Uber, Lyft, Via, and Juno in New York, and it compares with the international findings of other related studies
2175 out of 3346 participants in this survey replied to the question about the main mobility mode for their work trips including rail modes, ferry, bicycle, bus/shuttle, rental/carsharing, private vehicles, walking, and taxi/ride hailing

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The International Energy Agency (IEA, 2020) reported that transportation is still responsible for 24% of direct CO2 emissions of fuel combustion in the world [1]. Transportation is one of the major energy consumption sectors, constituting 28% of total U.S. energy consumption in 2019 [2]. The second biggest source of CO2 emissions is the road transport sector in the EU, which was around 25% of total emissions in 2016 [3]. About 94% of the EU transport energy demands are covered by fossil energies [4]

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Discussion

Conclusion