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One possible strategy to tackle the negative effects of urban freight is the substitution of cars by electric cargo bikes for inner-city courier shipments. This paper determines whether there is a potential market for electric cargo bikes, how the current market is organized, how electric cargo bikes are perceived by bike and car messengers, and what factors drive their willingness to use them. We find that in terms of cost, payload and range, electric cargo bikes lie in between two existing modes (bikes and cars) that have a largely overlapping market. Vehicle choice is commonly made by freelance messengers, as many courier companies don't operate their own fleets. Therefore they can contribute only indirectly to the dissemination of electric cargo bikes by considering them in their operational management. Despite the fact that most messengers have not used an electric cargo bike before, it was generally regarded to be suitable for courier shipments. Using a binary logit model, we find that messengers' demographics, their professional practice as well as their attitudes and values have significant impacts on their willingness to use electric cargo bikes. Critical factors for actual implementation appear to be electric range, purchase price and publically available information.

The advent of fully automated road vehicles is a topic currently getting attention in the field of transport as well as futures research: the technology is assumed to radically change the way we move in the future as well as to expand and differentiate existing mobility concepts. Still, the implications of automated driving are first and foremost discussed from a technological point of view and uncertainty about how this transition might take place remains. The embedding in the system of automobility respectively the transport system as a whole, currently lacks analytical as well as empirical examination. In our paper, we will discuss the topic in relation to three possible sociotechnical transition scenarios: (1) evolution, (2) revolution and (3) transformation. We will extrapolate different scenarios of automated driving based on current technical, economic, infrastructural, spatial, and transport developments and discuss its consequences for the transport system and mobility concepts.

Introduction The global Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is having a great impact on all areas of the everyday life, including travel behaviour. Various measures that focus on restricting social contacts have been implemented in order to reduce the spread of the virus. Understanding how daily activities and travel behaviour change during such global crisis and the reasons behind is crucial for developing suitable strategies for similar future events and analysing potential mid- and long-term impacts. Methods In order to provide empirical insights into changes in travel behaviour during the first Coronavirus-related lockdown in 2020 for Germany, an online survey with a relative representative sample for the German population was conducted a week after the start of the nationwide contact ban. The data was analysed performing descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Results and Discussion The results suggest in general an increase in car use and decrease in public transport use as well as more negative perception of public transport as a transport alternative during the pandemic. Regarding activity-related travel patterns, the findings show firstly, that the majority of people go less frequent shopping; simultaneously, an increase in online shopping can be seen and characteristics of this group were analysed. Secondly, half of the adult population still left their home for leisure or to run errands; young adults were more active than all other age groups. Thirdly, the majority of the working population still went to work; one out of four people worked in home-office. Lastly, potential implications for travel behaviour and activity patterns as well as policy measures are discussed.

In light of the necessity of reducing motorized road traffic in Europe, above all in city centers, focus is switching more and more to cycle freight. At present there is little research or systematically prepared findings in this area. This paper demonstrates that the use of cycle freight is already widespread, though restricted to larger cities, which have the density necessary to create demand. The existing firms that use cycle freight operate primarily as pure cycle freight operators. The parallel operation of cargo cycles within fleets of otherwise motorized vehicles has, however, been tried successfully on several occasions. The availability of city center hubs that ensure the necessary efficiency is one of the special requirements associated with the use of cargo cycles. Customers still have reservations, although it may be assumed that these reservations are more a case of initial resistance and could be overcome through information and advertising campaigns. In total, it is expected that around a quarter of city center freight transport could be carried by bike. Bike freight will work only if this mode of delivery is given greater consideration in city and transport planning. Initial estimates indicate that the reduction in air and noise pollution created by cycle-based commercial traffic could be quite significant, although systematic analysis is lacking in this area. To date, there have been no studies on the effects of cycle freight on city center traffic.