What Attributes Do Passengers Value in Electrified Buses?

Yeongmin Kwon, Suji Kim, Hyungjoo Kim and Jihye Byun
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Yeongmin Kwon: Mechanical Technology Research Center, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Korea
Suji Kim: The Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Green Transportation, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Korea
Hyungjoo Kim: Gyeonggi Autonomous Driving Center, Advanced Institute of Convergence Technology, Seongnam-si 13449, Korea
Jihye Byun: Center for Eco-friendly Smart Vehicle, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Korea

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: The Korean government has announced plans to supply electrified buses to achieve decarbonization in the transportation sector and to create next-generation growth engines. Although a multitude of technical and political studies have been conducted to support the successful introduction of electrified buses, studies on the attitudes and perceptions of passengers toward electrified buses remain insufficient. To evaluate the perceptions and preferences of potential passengers toward the specific attributes of electrified buses, this study performed an online survey (N = 586) that includes people who had experienced travel on public buses. Values of the relative importance of eight different attributes—safety, ride comfort, environmental friendliness, exterior design, cleanliness, crowding, seat comfort, and convenience getting on/off—were evaluated using the best-worst scaling method. The results showed that safety (share of preference: 41.3%) was the most important attribute when using electrified buses. This was followed by eco-friendliness (14.3%) and ride comfort (13.6%). On the other hand, the least important attribute was exterior design (1.8%). Gender differences were also observed in the valuation of certain attributes among the passenger preferences toward electrified buses. The results of this study contribute to the development of strategies for the wide-spread adoption of electrified buses and provide a stepping-stone to a more sustainable public transportation system.

Keywords: electrified bus; public transportation; consumer preference; best-worst scaling; decarbonization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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