Assessing the Willingness to Use Personal e-Transporters (PeTs): Results from a Cross-National Survey in Nine European Cities

Tim De Ceunynck, Gert Jan Wijlhuizen, Aslak Fyhri, Regine Gerike, Dagmar Köhler, Alice Ciccone, Atze Dijkstra, Emmanuelle Dupont and Mario Cools
Additional contact information
Tim De Ceunynck: Vias Institute, BE-1130 Brussels, Belgium
Gert Jan Wijlhuizen: SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research, 2594 The Hague, The Netherlands
Aslak Fyhri: TØI Institute of Transport Economics, 0349 Oslo, Norway
Regine Gerike: Institute of Transport Planning and Road Traffic, Technische Universität Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany
Dagmar Köhler: Polis, BE-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Alice Ciccone: TØI Institute of Transport Economics, 0349 Oslo, Norway
Atze Dijkstra: SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research, 2594 The Hague, The Netherlands
Emmanuelle Dupont: Vias Institute, BE-1130 Brussels, Belgium
Mario Cools: Local Environment Management & Analysis (LEMA), Urban & Environmental Engineering (UEE), University of Liège, Polytech 1, BE-4000 Liège, Belgium

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: In the last few years, there has been a strong increase in the interest in and usage of so-called “Personal e-Transporters” (PeTs), also referred to as micro-mobility devices. Empirical research on the usage of PeTs as a transport mode is virtually non-existent, especially within Europe. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating people’s motivations and barriers to the use of PeTs. To this end, a behavioural survey was conducted in nine European cities. A representative sample of approximately 250 respondents per city was collected, resulting in a dataset, after data cleaning, of 2159 observations. Generally, respondents’ perceptions of PeTs are not (yet) very favourable. Respondents’ perceptions related to cost and safety received the lowest scores. The results from the transtheoretical model of behavioural change show that a variety of factors influence the stage of behavioural change in which the respondents can be situated. These factors include cycling norms, current walking behaviour, walking attitudes, pro-environmental orientation, gender, PeTs possession, cycling obstacles and subscription to a bicycle sharing service. An important strength of this study lies in the international nature and the size of the data collection, ensuring the reliability and transferability of the results to other cities. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first large-scale survey to investigate people’s travel behaviour related to the usage of PeTs and possibly the only large-scale investigation that took place before the deployment of shared e-scooters in many European cities. Furthermore, an explicit link is made with other modes of active transport (walking and cycling).

Keywords: Personal e-Transporters; PeTs; e-scooters; active transport modes; travel behaviour; urban mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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