The Impact of COVID-19 on Travel Mode Choice Behavior in Terms of Shared Mobility: A Case Study in Beijing, China

Xiaoyu Zhang, Chunfu Shao, Bobin Wang and Shichen Huang
Additional contact information
Xiaoyu Zhang: Key Laboratory of Transport Industry of Big Data Application Technologies for Comprehensive Transport, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Chunfu Shao: Key Laboratory of Transport Industry of Big Data Application Technologies for Comprehensive Transport, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Bobin Wang: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Shichen Huang: Key Laboratory of Transport Industry of Big Data Application Technologies for Comprehensive Transport, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: Shared mobility is growing rapidly and changing the mobility landscape. The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated travel mode choice behavior in terms of shared mobility, but the evidence on this impact is limited. To fill this gap, this paper first designs a stated preference survey to collect mode choice data before and during the pandemic. Different shared mobility services are considered, including ride hailing, ride sharing, car sharing, and bike sharing. Then, latent class analysis is used to divide the population in terms of their attitudes toward shared mobility. Nested logit models are applied to compare travel mode choice behavior during the two periods. The results suggest that shared mobility has the potential to avoid the high transmission risk of public transport and alleviate the intensity of private car use in the COVID-19 context, but this is limited by anxiety about shared spaces. As the perceived severity of the pandemic increases, preference for ride hailing and ride sharing decreases, and a price discount for ride hailing is more effective than that for ride sharing at maintaining the ridership despite the impact of COVID-19. These findings contribute to understanding the change in travel demand and developing appropriate strategies for shared mobility services to adapt to the pandemic.

Keywords: shared mobility; COVID-19; travel mode choice; stated preference experiment; latent class analysis; nested logit model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7130/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7130/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:12:p:7130-:d:835875

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().