Modelling travelers’ appraisal of ridepooling service characteristics with a discrete choice experiment

Abstract

Background: Ridepooling services have been predicted a bright future since they promise a flexible and user-centered mobility service. However, there is a research gap in examining the travelers’ perception of ridepooling service characteristics since findings concerning fixed-scheduled public transport are hardly transferable. Methods: In order to shed some light on the human factors of ridepooling services a Discrete Choice Experiment (N = 410) was performed to identify travelers’ preferences concerning ridepooling’s service features. The study thereby focusses on the effect of trip purpose on the appraisal of the service attributes. Based on a literature review and a focus group six attributes of the operational concept were determined: fare, walking distance to the pick-up point, time of booking in advance, shift of departure time, travel time and information. Results: The results underline that all of the six attributes significantly affected choice behavior. The appraisal of the service characteristics differed depending on the presented trip purpose. The willingness to pay was calculated for each service characteristics. The results give guidance for the user-centered design and operation of ridepooling systems that meet the requirements of the prospective passengers and thus facilitate behavioral shifts towards more sustainable mobility systems.