Travelers’ preferences towards Eindhoven city center_Implications of Mobility as a Service in the built environment

Eindhoven is facing the challenging task of keeping the city accessible with the increasing pressure on its infrastructure, and meanwhile reducing its emission levels. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is deemed promising to be one of the solutions. This new mobility concept offers its users a tailormade and demand-responsive mobility package arranged via one platform. However, the supply of the transport modes offered by MaaS has its implications in the built environment as well: the mobility hubs. A knowledge gap exists on the preferences regarding these hubs in relation to other forms of (sustainable) mobility. The aim of this research is therefore to obtain more insights in the determinants influencing travelers’ decisions to switch to more sustainable (shared-)mobility alternatives. Resulting in the main research question: ‘Which factors can influence visitors’ inclination to switch to sustainable (shared) mobility for their visit of Eindhoven city center (in transition towards MaaS)?’ This study provides insights in the determinants of mode choice with a focus on mobility hubs in the context of MaaS. An online survey including a Stated Choice experiment has been conducted, and the data of 375 respondents is used for the analyses. A number of discrete choice models have been estimated using NLogit to distinguish the determining factors for travelers’ preferences towards Eindhoven city center.

Results indicate that overall alternatives without a transfer are preferred. Increased travel time and waiting time negatively influences the choice for the hub alternatives, and this effect seems stronger for people with a working purpose and people in the age category between 30 and 50 years. Moreover, taking the bus from the hub seems to be preferred over using the bike. The costs for the hub are also determinant in mode choice, and can even attract unintended users when the hub is free. Increased parking tariffs in the city center on the other hand seem to influence the share of sustainable transportation. For the municipality of Eindhoven the insights generated in this study can be used as underpinning in their considerations on the realization of hubs and increasing the share of sustainable transportation towards the city.