Personalizing Mobility?
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Author
Date
2020-09Type
- Doctoral Thesis
ETH Bibliography
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Abstract
Technological innovations in recent decades have led to a further decrease in transport costs. As a result, global passenger transport, which is a primary enabler of increased globalisation, is at an all-time high. This has led to interconnectedness of states, organisations and people on a scale never seen before. While this development has many positive sides, such as increased overall prosperity, the transportation sector is also a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and thus a primary driver of climate change.
In parallel, digital transformation is leaving its mark on the transport sector. It is a principal driver of future transport directions, including automated driving, passenger drones and the autonomous delivery of goods. More subtly, today's transport system is already being transformed. New business models that rely on tight digital integration of services have started to appear and new mobility services such as ride sourcing, (e-)bike sharing and e-scooter sharing have been introduced in many cities around the world.
Specifically, two developments connected to digital transformation have driven the emergence of new mobility services and have increased analysts' ability to study the transportation system. First, as a consequence of the high market penetration of smartphones, there is a direct interface between most individuals and mobility providers. This allows for the comprehensive personalisation of services: the location of the customer, information about capacities of transport networks and complementary information (such as weather data) can be taken into account when a service is offered. Second, the cost and effort required to obtain data on individuals, including their location, has decreased, enabling this information to be used to inform the design of transport policies.
This thesis presents three contributions that are to a great extent driven by the global trends of digital transformation and subsequent personalisation. Two contributions are part of the broad topic of new mobility services, which are likely to shape future (urban) transport systems: Mobility as a Service (MaaS) bundles and electric bicycle-sharing systems. A wide array of shared and highly integrated services may contribute to a decrease in emissions and have the potential to ease the tension between increasing mobility and mitigating the environmental burden of the transport system. The third contribution assumes a more global perspective and examines one of the primary determinants of daily commuting patterns: choice of residential location relative to an individual's work location. A personal network survey was conducted to study the effects of proximity to personal contacts on residential location choice and its connection to commuting.
The first contribution of the thesis shows that MaaS bundles may indeed be an attractive option for a certain share of the population. However, the results also suggest that not all services are viewed as complementary by potential customers. Including non-complementary services may decrease the propensity of customers to choose a particular bundle. Operators should thus carefully target bundles to potential customers.
The second contribution analyses free-floating e-bike sharing. Free-floating (e-)bike-sharing services are often part of MaaS bundles and provide the flexibility that traditional public transportation sometimes lacks. This chapter shows that free-floating e-bike sharing is part of an ongoing evolution of bicycle-sharing systems. The competitive position of e-bike sharing compared to traditional modes of urban transportation is also examined. Drivers of e-bike-sharing demand are analyzed and it is shown that population, workplace density and proximity to central locations are among the most important drivers of demand. Transferability of the models to new areas is also analysed and discussed.
The question of how personal networks affect residential location choice is answered using data from a personal network survey that was collected as part of this thesis. It is shown that personal networks are an important factor and ignoring them may lead to an overestimation of commute time in analyses of residential location choice. Partial compensation of longer commutes may be achieved through higher access to individual social capital that is provided by proximity to personal contacts. This potentially affects transport policies aimed at reducing time spent commuting. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000445503Publication status
publishedExternal links
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Publisher
ETH ZurichSubject
Mobility as a Service; Mobility-on-demand; Bike-sharing; Personal networks; public transportOrganisational unit
03521 - Axhausen, Kay W. (emeritus) / Axhausen, Kay W. (emeritus)
02655 - Netzwerk Stadt u. Landschaft ARCH u BAUG / Network City and Landscape ARCH and BAUG
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