Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Daily Overview |
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Choice modeling for environmental policy Location: Auditorium K Session Chair: Noelle Lasseur, Wageningen University | |
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Early consumer response to electric buses in urban areas: Evidence from a discrete choice experiment 1: Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome; 2: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University; 3: Department of Systems Engineering, Cornell University Electric buses (e-buses) are receiving increasing attention from planners and decision-makers worldwide. However, the user's perspective has received far less focus from scholars and practitioners, resulting in a lack of understanding about consumer response to bus fleet electrification. This paper addresses this research gap by investigating whether and how e-buses can enhance public transport attractiveness by improving ride conditions and leveraging environmental benefits. To this end, we first discuss all distinctive features of e-buses that can influence consumers' attitudes towards public transport. We then provide empirical evidence on travellers' responses to the introduction of e-buses using a pivoted discrete choice experiment conducted through a web-based survey in Rome, Italy. The results of this research indicate that most trade-offs are significant and align with expectations. In particular, travellers recognize the distinctive features of e-buses, including environmental benefits. However, other quality attributes of bus services, such as frequency and punctuality -- which directly affect travel time -- and safety and security, are deemed more pivotal in attracting car drivers. When these attributes are considered in the choice experiment, the impact of environmental concerns on travel behaviour and travellers’ willingness to pay becomes less pronounced. Nevertheless, the intrinsic preference for e-buses remains statistically significant in our results, indicating a growing importance of environmental considerations in travel mode choice. | |