Exploring factors influencing the willingness to use a mobility management travel app.

A particularly appealing tool for improving the effectiveness of information programs, also named Voluntary Travel Behavior Change (VTBC) programs, aimed at curbing car use is the employment of smartphone applications. Indeed, this kind of applications permits to implement VTBC programs at a population scale at reduced costs. Beyond that, they can be a more powerful tool than traditional informative campaigns, as it becomes possible to provide real-time information to a large number of participants, carrying out more and more personalized and flexible interventions and using persuasive technology techniques. However, the success of an informative campaign delivered through a smartphone application could be affected by users’ use and acceptance of the app. Furthermore, it is possible that only highly-motivated individuals (e.g people with a greater level of environmental awareness) or individuals who already adopt a sustainable travel behavior show interest in taking part to the program (self-selection effect). Thus, it is crucial to analyze which factors, both objective and subjective, can influence the use of this new technology and which barriers can prevent users’ adoption Given this background, the object of the current study is to explore which categories of individuals are more apt to use mobility management travel applications. In particular, we want to (1) investigate whether people’s intention to use a mobility management app differs depending on their sociodemographic and psychosocial factors and (2) verify whether a relationship between this intention and the choice to commute using a sustainable means of transport exists. The study presented here is based on the data gathered during the program “Svolta Cagliari”. The aim of the program was promoting a more sustainable travel behavior among individuals working and studying in the municipality of Cagliari, main city in Sardinia (Italy). One of the actions of the program was the development of a mobility management application called “Svoltiamo”. In the first step of the program, conducted between November 2019 and January 2020, we contacted potential app users and asked them to fill a questionnaire, so as to know their current travel behavior. The questionnaire was composed by three different sections: 1) description of the home to work trip; 2) psycho-social questions aimed at investigating individuals’ attitude, perceived behavioral control and social norm toward the sustainable mobility, environmental responsibility and awareness; 3) socio-economic characteristics. In the second phase, conducted in February 2020, we contacted all the individuals who had a car available (3,284 individuals) for their commuting trip and we asked them their willingness to participate to program Svolta, consisting in using for at least two weeks the smartphone application. At the end of the second phase, 1,460 individuals (44.4%) expressed their interest in taking part to the program and using the “Svoltiamo” application. The modeling approach adopted in this work is based on GHDM framework (Bhat, 2015), which jointly handles mixed types of dependent variables - including multiple nominal outcomes, multiple ordinal variables and multiple continuous variables. In the specific case of our study, we included two main endogenous variables: 1) one binary variable representing the intention to participate to the VTBC program and use the mobility management application (yes vs no); 2) one binary variable representing the commute mode choice (sustainable vs not sustainable). Model estimation results provide a variety of insights into the factors driving the intention to use a mobility management app. Regarding socio-economic characteristics, we found that males and people with a higher level of education are more likely to participate to the program. Concerning psychosocial variables, model results pointed out that “environmental awareness” and “environmental responsibility” positively influence the intention to take part to an app-based program. Finally, we found that sustainable mobility adopters are more likely to express their interest in using a mobility management app. In conclusion, our findings show a high level of heterogeneity among citizens when it comes the time to choose to take part to a VTBC program and the importance to understand people’s characteristics. This information can be used by policy planners and practitioners to design and implement a generalized marketing campaign able to persuade the largest number of citizens to participate to the VTBC program and guarantee its success.