The Acceptance and Use Behavior of Shared Mobility Services in a Rural Municipality

Abstract

In rural regions, needs-based mobility services play an important role in the provision of public services. Shared Mobility Services can optimally complement local public transportation such as buses and trains, even in rural regions, and support the transformation of transportation. There is already research on Shared Mobility Services in the literature, but there is no comparison between all of Germany-wide and a specific municipality. We were interested in learning to what extent there is acceptance among citizens and what their usage behavior is towards such new alternatives. We also aimed to find out whether there are differences between large cities and rural regions and to what extent they differ from each other. In this case study, interplay was demonstrated using the example of a funded Smart City mobility project in a German rural municipality. The objective was to show whether the potential exists to initiate traffic turnaround with the help of Shared Mobility Services. In a quantitative survey of 418 German citizens, 114 of them from the rural municipality, the acceptance and usage behavior of Shared Mobility Services (in the form of car, bike and e-scooter sharing) was investigated. The results show that participants are very interested in Shared Mobility Services and have already gained initial experience with such services. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive services; for instance, the demand for car sharing is still too low, as many citizens still own a private vehicle. Our results show that citizens are too little informed about Shared Mobility Services and that these services need to be advertised much more strongly and clearly, both in analog and digitally. Our study shows that traffic turnaround can be achieved and that many citizens can imagine greater use of Shared Mobility Services in their everyday lives in the future. However, for this to happen, the necessary infrastructure must be in place in rural regions, and local authorities must motivate citizens with sufficient educational work about what is on offer and how to use it.