Background As a reaction to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), countries around the globe have implemented various measures to reduce the spread of the virus. The transportation sector is particularly affected by the pandemic situation. The current study aims to contribute to the empirical knowledge regarding the effects of the coronavirus situation on the mobility of people by (1) broadening the perspective to the mobility rural area’s residents and (2) providing subjective data concerning the perceived changes of affected persons’ mobility practices, as these two aspects have scarcely been considered in research so far. Methods To address these research gaps, a mixed-methods study was conducted that integrates a qualitative telephone interview study (N = 15) and a quantitative household survey (N = 301). The rural district of Altmarkkreis Salzwedel in Northern Germany was chosen as a model region. Results The results provide in-depth insights into the changing mobility practices of residents of a rural area during the legal restrictions to stem the spread of the virus. A high share of respondents (62.6%) experienced no changes in their mobility behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation. However, nearly one third of trips were also cancelled overall. A modal shift was observed towards the reduction of trips by car and bus, and an increase of trips by bike. The share of trips by foot was unchanged. The majority of respondents did not predict strong long-term effects of the corona pandemic on their mobility behavior.

Public ridepooling systems could contribute to the reduction of traffic volume and emissions in cities by decreasing the number of rides by private car while increasing the average number of passengers per vehicle. Yet, it is unknown how urban travelers value different attributes of the ridepooling’s operational concept. Which characteristics of ridepooling concepts are most important to the users? In order to obtain a deeper understanding of travelers’ preferences concerning a ridepooling system, choice-based Conjoint Analysis was performed. Based on a literature review and a focus group, six relevant attributes of the operational concept of ridepooling systems were determined: fare, walking distance, time of booking, shift of departure time, travel time, and information provision. Data from 237 German city dwellers were analyzed with the help of Cox regression. Except for time of booking, all service attributes significantly affected the respondents’ choice. Besides the high relevance of fare, the results underline the particular importance of the attribute walking distance to the pick-up point for elderly. The results give guidance for the creation of user-centered public transport systems that meet the requirements of the prospective passengers and thus might contribute to the development of shared passenger transport systems for sustainable urban mobility.

Sustainability research is frequently tasked with the development of concrete solutions that can be directly applied to socio-environmental problems as such this paper presents and discusses an inter- and transdisciplinary approach to developing and testing a mobility-on-demand-system in a “real world laboratory” set up in Schorndorf, Germany. This paper addresses the following questions: (1) How can stakeholders be involved in the research and development process and become co-designers? (2) What are the suitable ways of supporting and facilitating interdisciplinary exchange and joint work at different places? The main contribution of this paper is the description of a methodological approach. It thereby reflects on the process of inter- and transdisciplinary work in the development phase and pilot operation. In addition, a joint working document, a so called “Specification Book”, is utilized to facilitate teamwork and enable the exchange of scientific knowledge within the team. The experiences in the project are also reflected upon and specific recommendations are determined. The paper further reflects on the possibilities and challenges of the methodology and provides recommendations for its application. The originality of the paper lies in its description and reflection of a method that goes beyond the participation of users in the design phase of the project.

Background: Ridepooling services have been predicted a bright future since they promise a flexible and usercentered mobility service. However, there is a research gap in examining the travelers' perception of ridepooling service characteristics since findings concerning fixed-scheduled public transport are hardly transferable. Methods: In order to shed some light on the human factors of ridepooling services a Discrete Choice Experiment (N = 410) was performed to identify travelers' preferences concerning ridepooling's service features. The study thereby focusses on the effect of trip purpose on the appraisal of the service attributes. Based on a literature review and a focus group six attributes of the operational concept were determined: fare, walking distance to the pickup point, time of booking in advance, shift of departure time, travel time and information. Results: The results underline that all of the six attributes significantly affected choice behavior. The appraisal of the service characteristics differed depending on the presented trip purpose. The willingness to pay was calculated for each service characteristics. The results give guidance for the user-centered design and operation of ridepooling systems that meet the requirements of the prospective passengers and thus facilitate behavioral shifts towards more sustainable mobility systems.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has had considerable impacts on research projects, particularly those adopting participatory approaches. This paper reflects on the methodological adaptations employed by the European research project TRIPS to facilitate co-design and open innovation practices towards the development of accessible mobility solutions. The article reports how the methods were adapted to facilitate participatory research with almost no physical meetings. In doing so, the paper presents the alternative ‘distanced-based’ participatory approaches employed to engage users with disabilities and institutional stakeholders in the transport ecosystem, like online workshops, social media content analysis, online surveys and peer-to-peer telephone interviews. Lessons learnt and practical guidelines for distance-based participatory research are presented and discussed with the aim of increasing resilience in the light of future changes.