The introduction of a carsharing service reduces both private car ownership and total vehicle miles traveled. Due to the environmentally friendly modal shifts, policy makers are keen to increase market share of carsharing. While past research has focused on both the users of carsharing services and their general mode choice, little is known about access trips to vehicles of station-based carsharing services. However, because access to a mode is critical for its success, gaining insight into the way people experience access trips is an important step towards increased mode acceptance. In this paper we present model results based on a stated choice survey regarding access trips to carsharing stations conducted by users of a regional carsharing provider in Germany. After giving a brief overview of the conducted survey and the results of a descriptive analysis, we present the results of multiple multinomial and mixed multinomial logit models. Results of the multinomial logit models show that trip-related variables are the most important determinants for access mode choice, while only a few socio-demographic parameters are significant. We estimated mixed multinomial logit models to find out how consistent respondents answered across the choice situations. The results show that respondents were not always consistent across their choices and would, e.g. choose public transportation even if that entailed long distance travel or waiting times. Our findings are consistent with both research regarding public transportation access and the small pool of research regarding access of carsharing vehicles.

The continuous increase of urban population and trend towards urban sprawl in European cities have introduced a change in mobility patterns. In the digital age, real-time information travel planners become a key enabler of travel behaviour change, and can be applied for encouraging more sustainable habits. This paper explores the motivational drivers underlying the adoption and use of these Smart Mobility solutions. Since end-users expectations are particularly important for achieving the most successful design of travel planning applications, an ad-hoc travellers survey is designed and carried out in the metropolitan area of Madrid (Spain). The assessment methodology used by the research Principal Component Analysis is proposed as a replicable step-by-step procedure. The innovative contribution of this research is the consideration of three different categories of travellers according to the origin and destination points of their most frequent trips. Our results highlight the different needs of each group of travellers, but also point out their common motivations: the need of user-friendly devices, the need for control and their environmental awareness. In contrast to previous literature, this study does not identify privacy and security concerns as significant latent constructs.

The promise of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is that it decreases the need to own a car and contributes to a more sustainable transport system. However, MaaS also offers relatively easy access to car-based travel alternatives which may result in substituting public transport trips by car trips. An important question therefore is: which type of traveler is going to adopt MaaS and which impact is this going to have on their mode choices? This paper explores this question by presenting the results of a stated choice experiment conducted in the Netherlands. Travelers are presented with MaaS bundles that vary in accessibility to transport services and price and they respond to a range of questions about bundle adoption, change in transport mode, and willingness to shed one or more cars. The results suggest that if MaaS bundles are given for free to the travelers, this has the potential to change their frequency of mode use. For example, if the MaaS bundel includes unlimited bus, tram and metro (BTM), even travelers who solely use car will then use BTM more. However, realizing this potential is not very likely, because when travelers have to pay for MaaS, adoption rates are rather low, in particular of those who use car the most. In addition, the willingness of car owners to shed their cars is very low, suggesting that currently MaaS is not conceived as a viable alternative for car-ownership. On the other hand, current public travelers seem most interested in MaaS and results indeed as expected suggest that this increases their car use. Overall, the trends reported in this paper adds to a growing insight that MaaS contribution to sustainability may be smaller than generally believed.