Behavioral factors underlying the adoption of smart mobility solutions

Resumen

Today, cities are home to more than half of the world’s population and hold a preeminent position in both human activity and global economy. Yet, their growth, which is expected to continue in all world regions in the near future, is posing massive sustainability challenges. These challenges bring up the need for innovative urban solutions that help to reduce inefficiencies and externalities, while retaining the benefits of urban surge. At the same time, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have undergone swift progress, constantly generating new solutions and business models. These innovations are rewriting the ground rules for multiple economic sectors, including the urban services field as they are being deployed in cities around the globe. Smart Mobility solutions arise from the transposition of these technologies and disruptive models to the urban mobility field. These new solutions are expected to solve several urban challenges through an optimization of city services while enhancing social, economic and environmental sustainability and the quality of life of the citizens. This doctoral thesis is framed in the context of the popularization of the Smart City concept and of the massive eruption of IT-based urban mobility solutions in our cities. It is aimed at expanding the body of knowledge in the transport behavior field by understanding how certain behavioral traits present in the population are aligned with the choice to adopt and use new IT-based sustainable transport solutions and services. With this aim, the users of Madrid’stransport network have been searched for the propensity to adopt and use three different smart mobility solutionslinked to the three main transportation options (active modes, public transportation and private car). Three behavioral studies are developed in this work in the city of Madrid, each including a specific data collection process through online surveys. The hypotheses and the executed analysis are focused on the role of both traditional transport-related and more novel technology-related attitudinal factors; obtaining an answer to the research question of which behavioral traits underly the decision to adopt smart mobility solutions. Results show that the factors of “green values”, “social norms”, “technophilia” and “privacy concerns” do play relevant roles in the users decision to adoption and use these solutions. The objective of this thesis is to improve public policy by focusing on how said attitudinal factors can be exploited to leverage a new, more sustainable future of urban mobility. In this sense policy recommendations are provided in its conclusions.