Consumer preferences and willingness to pay for advanced vehicle technology options and fuel types

The automotive industry is witnessing a revolution with the advent of advanced vehicular technologies, smart vehicle options, and fuel alternatives. However, there is very limited research on consumer preferences for such advanced vehicular technologies. The deployment and penetration of advanced vehicular technologies in the marketplace, and planning for possible market adoption scenarios, calls for the collection and analysis of consumer preference data related to these emerging technologies. This study aims to address this need, offering a detailed analysis of consumer preference for alternative fuel types and technology options using data collected in stated choice experiments conducted on a sample of consumers from six metropolitan cities in South Korea. The results indicate that there is considerable heterogeneity in consumer preferences for various smart technology options such as wireless internet, vehicle connectivity, and voice command features, but relatively less heterogeneity in the preference for smart vehicle applications such as real-time traveler information on parking and traffic conditions.     

高速路节日免费通行对小汽车出行者选择行为影响研究

出行成本是出行者在选择出行方式时的重要考虑因素。随着我国高速公路网和收费政策的逐步完善,自驾已成为出行者考虑选择的主要出行方式。为研究节日里选择小汽车出行的用户特征及影响因素,通过意向调查的方式对小汽车出行者的偏好进行调查。应用二项Logit模型建模分析,结果显示个人属性、出行属性以及出行环境等都在不同程度上影响出行者的节日出行选择行为,其中小汽车拥有状况、驾龄、旅行时间、出行者在以往节日里选择的出行方式、通行费、线路熟悉程度等对节日出行行为影响较为显著,该研究成果在交通预测、交通管控等方面具有指导性作用。     

城市公共交通多元票制初探

借鉴国外先进经验,引进多元化公交票制是国内推进公交优先发展的重要措施.多元票制,即将乘客进行科学的分类,根据乘客的出行需求,设置不同种类的车票,以提高公交吸引力.就国内公交发展现状来看,换乘优惠的票制改革是推广多元票制的最佳切入点.     

The accuracy of proxy responses in a stated choice setting: A re-examination and some controversial conclusions

Data is typically gathered from an individual respondent who represents the group or the household. This individual is often identified as the “primary decision maker” and is asked to provide responses as a proxy for the group given that the cost of interviewing each member individually is impractical and/or expensive. The collection of joint preferences is rarely undertaken, with the use of proxy responses not uncommon in travel behaviour research. Under such a framework, there exists an assumption that the primary decision maker has perfect knowledge of other group member preferences, and bargaining behaviour, and is able to synthesise this information when providing a response on their behalf. The validity of such an assumption however remains an open question, with recent research calling the reliability of proxy responses into account (Bateman and Munro, 2009). In this paper, using three models estimated in willingness to pay space, we examine the accuracy of proxy responses in a stated choice experiment. We find that there is overlap between a proxy response and the own preferences of the individual providing the proxy choice, but while the proxy responses fail to represent the full preference heterogeneity that exists in the actual choices made by individuals, the proxy responses in aggregate provide a suitable replacement for actual data, subject to a number of caveats.     

Impact of telecommuting and intelligent transportation systems on residential location choice

The impacts of telecommuting and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) on urban development patterns were investigated in terms of households' residential location choice decisions. A discrete choice modelling approach framework was used. A stated preference (SP) logit analysis was carried out to estimate the parameters of the utility function. An attitude survey of employees of selected public and private sector organizations in the Ottawa-Carleton Region (Canada) yielded the required data for model estimation. In addition to obtaining background information, the survey elicited SP responses by presenting a number of hypothetical residential choice scenarios defined according to the principles of SP experimental design. Results show that telecommuting and ITS measures are highly significant factors in the residential choice model. This leads to the conclusion that these reinforce dispersed residential patterns and encourage moves towards outlying sites. Implications of this conclusion for urban land development planning are noted.     

Enhancing stated preference surveys in transportation research: the contribution of geographic information systems

In this paper we argue that visualization, data management and computational capabilities of geographic information systems (GIS) can assist transportation stated preference research in capturing the contextual complexity of many transportation decision environments by providing respondents with maps and other spatial and non-spatial information in graphical form that enhance respondents' understanding of decision scenarios. We explore the multiple inherent contributions of GIS to transportation stated preference data collection and propose a framework for a GIS-based stated preference survey instrument. We also present the design concepts of two survey prototypes and their GIS implementation for a sample travel mode choice problem.     

Evolution of the household vehicle fleet: Anticipating fleet composition, PHEV adoption and GHG emissions in Austin, Texas

In today’s world of volatile fuel prices and climate concerns, there is little study on the relationship between vehicle ownership patterns and attitudes toward vehicle cost (including fuel prices and feebates) and vehicle technologies. This work provides new data on ownership decisions and owner preferences under various scenarios, coupled with calibrated models to microsimulate Austin’s personal-fleet evolution.Opinion survey results suggest that most Austinites (63%, population-corrected share) support a feebate policy to favor more fuel efficient vehicles. Top purchase criteria are price, type/class, and fuel economy. Most (56%) respondents also indicated that they would consider purchasing a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) if it were to cost $6000 more than its conventional, gasoline-powered counterpart. And many respond strongly to signals on the external (health and climate) costs of a vehicle’s emissions, more strongly than they respond to information on fuel cost savings.Twenty five-year simulations of Austin’s household vehicle fleet suggest that, under all scenarios modeled, Austin’s vehicle usage levels (measured in total vehicle miles traveled or VMT) are predicted to increase overall, along with average vehicle ownership levels (both per household and per capita). Under a feebate, HEVs, PHEVs and Smart Cars are estimated to represent 25% of the fleet’s VMT by simulation year 25; this scenario is predicted to raise total regional VMT slightly (just 2.32%, by simulation year 25), relative to the trend scenario, while reducing CO₂ emissions only slightly (by 5.62%, relative to trend). Doubling the trend-case gas price to $5/gallon is simulated to reduce the year-25 vehicle use levels by 24% and CO₂ emissions by 30% (relative to trend).Two- and three-vehicle households are simulated to be the highest adopters of HEVs and PHEVs across all scenarios. The combined share of vans, pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), and cross-over utility vehicles (CUVs) is lowest under the feebate scenario, at 35% (versus 47% in Austin’s current household fleet). Feebate-policy receipts are forecasted to exceed rebates in each simulation year.In the longer term, gas price dynamics, tax incentives, feebates and purchase prices along with new technologies, government-industry partnerships, and more accurate information on range and recharging times (which increase customer confidence in EV technologies) should have added effects on energy dependence and greenhouse gas emissions.     

基于社交网络的民航旅客偏好建模

从社会网络的视角，提出了一种旅客个体偏好与关系偏好相结合的建模方法．首先，从旅客的历史出行记录中，构建基于共同出行关系的旅客社会网络；然后，构建旅客个体偏好模型和旅客关系偏好模型；最后，基于旅客偏好模型给旅客推荐座位．在民航领域的一个真实的数据集上进行了实验，证明本文提出的偏好模型能够有机地将旅客个体偏好与关系偏好结合起来，较好地描述旅客对航班座位的偏好．     

Analysing Demand for Suburban Trips: A Mixed RP/SP Model with Latent Variables and Interaction Effects

We analyse mode choice behaviour for suburban trips in the Grand Canary island using mixed revealed preference (RP)/stated preference (SP) information. The SP choice experiment allowed for interactions among the main policy variables: travel cost, travel time and frequency, and also to test the influence of latent variables such as comfort. It also led to discuss additional requirements on the size and sign of the estimated model parameters, to assess model quality when interactions are present. The RP survey produced data on actual trip behaviour and was used to adapt the SP choice experiment. During the specification searches we detected the presence of income effect and were able to derive willingness-to-pay measures, such as the subjective value of time, which varied among individuals. We also studied the systematic heterogeneity in individual tastes through the specification of models allowing for interactions between level-of-service and socio-economic variables. We concluded examining the sensitivity of travellers’ behaviour to various policy scenarios. In particular, it seems that contrary to political opinion, in a crowded island policies penalising the use of the private car seem to have a far greater impact in terms of bus patronage than policies implying direct improvements to the public transport service.