ABSTRACT
The car purchase intention of noncar owners is closely related to the growth of car ownership and may be changed in the context of COVID-19. This paper aims to investigate the decision-making mechanism of the car purchase intention before COVID-19 and the change of car purchase intention after COVID-19. The contributions of influencing factors are derived from the gradient boosting decision tree model and the asymmetric effects of attitudinal factors are further analyzed based on the three-factor theory. The comprehensive importance hierarchies of the two dependent variables are constructed through the integrated analysis of impact range and impact asymmetry. The results show that people who were previously more willing to buy cars are more likely to increase their willingness to buy after COVID-19. The pre–COVID-19 car purchase intention is primarily determined by shared mobility-related attitudes, while attitudes toward private car use have a greater impact on the post–COVID-19 intention change. These two attitudes are mainly manifested as intention relievers and discouragers before COVID-19, but they are more likely transformed into intention strengtheners and encouragers after COVID-19. The availability of shared mobility has the maximum comprehensive importance to the post–COVID-19 intention change. Therefore, maintaining and promoting the ridership of shared mobility will be the most important prerequisite for alleviating the car purchase intention after COVID-19 pandemic. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Advanced Transportation is the property of Hindawi Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
Shared mobility is growing rapidly and changing the mobility landscape. The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated travel mode choice behavior in terms of shared mobility, but the evidence on this impact is limited. To fill this gap, this paper first designs a stated preference survey to collect mode choice data before and during the pandemic. Different shared mobility services are considered, including ride hailing, ride sharing, car sharing, and bike sharing. Then, latent class analysis is used to divide the population in terms of their attitudes toward shared mobility. Nested logit models are applied to compare travel mode choice behavior during the two periods. The results suggest that shared mobility has the potential to avoid the high transmission risk of public transport and alleviate the intensity of private car use in the COVID-19 context, but this is limited by anxiety about shared spaces. As the perceived severity of the pandemic increases, preference for ride hailing and ride sharing decreases, and a price discount for ride hailing is more effective than that for ride sharing at maintaining the ridership despite the impact of COVID-19. These findings contribute to understanding the change in travel demand and developing appropriate strategies for shared mobility services to adapt to the pandemic.