Latent variables definition for a new mobility model in Barcelona

Abstract

In many European cities, mobility patterns are changing mainly due to advances in information and communications technology. Besides from this, people living in urban areas have now more transport mode alternatives to travel and the ownership of a vehicle is losing relevance to the modern world. In addition, the new generations value the time spent in the trip in a different way and they take advantage of travel time by means of connectivity (i.e. multitasking).As a result of the complexity of transport supply and transport demand preferences, the choice of transport alternative does not currently depend only on traditional cost, time and socioeconomic aspects. Therefore, we have focused the investigation on attitudes, habits and perceptions, to incorporate latent variables in the individual utility function.For this purpose, we have designed a web-based survey, based on qualitative in-depth interviews that revealed indicators of the travellers of Barcelona. The first section includes individual questions about a recent trip experience and the second part tests attitudinal aspects. A principal component analysis of the items asked in the attitudinal section has been carried out, obtaining 11 relevant factors that allocate respondents to different groups of users according to their attitudes and perceptions.The results show that in Barcelona, users, especially millennials, take advantage of new technologies in their journeys, their time perception changes if they do activities during the trip and they perceive car and bike sharing as a good mobility solution instead of the ownership and use of a private car.