Are we willing to relocate with the future introduction of flying cars? An exploratory empirical analysis of public perceptions in the United States

Abstract

Flying cars, a new transportation mode capable of operating on both land and air, are expected to be introduced in the existing traffic fleet over the next decade or so. Due to their potential in offering flexible mobility patterns, as well as shorter and more reliable travel times, flying cars are anticipated to bring forth significant changes in the urban transportation network. Even though the launch of flying cars is expected relatively soon, potential effects of this new transportation mode on public preferences towards residence location, due to anticipated improvements in mobility access, have not been explored to date. This paper aims to analyse whether a residence relocation trend (from urban to rural areas, or vice versa) is imminent if flying cars are introduced in the not so distant future. In this respect, an online survey was conducted where 584 individuals from the United States participated. The data from this survey are then statistically analysed through correlated grouped random parameters bivariate and univariate probit models, which are capable of accounting for several layers of unobserved heterogeneity. The analysis reveals that various sociodemographic characteristics of the individuals, and their opinions towards the perceived benefits and challenges of flying cars affect public opinions towards considering residence relocation due to the future introduction of flying cars. Although the existing knowledge regarding the operation of flying cars is currently limited, the findings from this study can provide insights into the travel demand, land use, urban and regional planning related challenges likely to be faced in urban and rural areas by policymakers, urban planners, and manufacturing companies, upon the introduction of flying cars.

Survey data on public perceptions towards flying cars and flying taxi services

“…A summary of the questions and the used scales are presented in Table 1 . Original research based on this dataset include: [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] .…”

Analysis of safety benefits and security concerns from the use of autonomous vehicles: A grouped random parameters bivariate probit approach with heterogeneity in means

“…It should be noted that the statistical analysis of such survey-obtained data is subjected to significant methodological challenges, most notably due to the almost ubiquitous presence of systematic unobserved variations in the received responses. This phenomenon is also known as unobserved heterogeneity (Mannering and Bhat, 2014;Mannering et al, 2016;Eker et al, 2019;Barbour et al, 2019;2020;Eker et al, 2020a;2020b;Ahmed et al, 2020a;2020b;2020c;Sheela and Mannering, 2020). To account for the methodological challenges arising from the presence of unobserved heterogeneity, a novel statistical modeling technique, namely the grouped random parameters bivariate probit model with heterogeneity in means is employed.…”

“…In statistical terminology, such systematic unobserved variations are captured in the error terms of the dependent variables under consideration. Since both of the aggregated safety benefit related response variables are likely affected by possible shared systematic unobserved variations, the corresponding error terms would be significantly correlated (Russo et al, 2014;Fountas and Anastasopoulos, 2017;Sarwar et al, 2017a;Sarwar et al, 2017b;Bhowmik et al, 2018;Eker et al, 2019;Eker et al, 2020a;2020b;Ahmed et al, 2020a;2020b;2020c;. The safety concern and security concern related responses would be affected by similar systematic unobserved variations as well.…”

“…Hence, presence of shared unobserved characteristics among the responses received by each distributor is highly likely. This is a common phenomenon known as unbalanced panel effects (Sarwar et al, 2017a;Fountas et al, 2018a;Eker et al, 2019;Eker et al, 2020a;2020b;Ahmed et al, 2020a;2020b;2020c). To account for the latter, the parameter estimates are allowed to vary across groups of responses collected by each of the survey distributors.…”

“…Eker, U., Fountas, G., Anastasopoulos, P., 2020b. An exploratory empirical analysis of willingness to pay for and use flying cars. Aerospace Science and Technology, 105993.…”