Shared Mobility and Last-Mile Connectivity to Metro Public Transport: Survey Design Aspects for Determining Willingness for Intermodal Ridesharing in Athens

Abstract

People living in peri-urban low-density areas may not choose the urban rail because they are hindered by the 'first/last mile' problem. The issue concerns poor bus feeder service to rail stations and/or congested Park&Ride facilities at respective intermodal hubs. Shared mobility in the form of carpooling is a viable alternative in connection to urban rail, especially when appropriate incentives and ridematching tools are effectuated. A multi-modal ride-matching app combining flexible (carpooling) and scheduled (rail and bus public transport) mobility is stipulated by the Horizon 2020 Ride2Rail project. Two intermodal hubs of urban rail along the 20 km-long corridor connecting the Athens basin with the Athens airport in Eastern Attica, Greece, are selected as a case study. The paper envisages the behavioural underpinning of combined railrideshare travel companion platform in the first/last mile context through the design of a SP experiment, as mode choice is concerned. All main access and egress modes of intermodal hubs are considered in the mode choice experiment, namely driving alone, using bus feeder, carpool driving and carpool riding. Tested parameters pertain particularly to incentive mechanisms increasing ridesharing to intermodal hubs, contextual preferences related to the trip purpose and perceived barriers of shared mobility.

Multimodal Traveling with Rail and Ride-Sharing: Lessons Learned during Planning and Demonstrating a Pilot Study

“…Attica's public transportation network consists of five different modes of public transport modes: metro, suburban railroad, tramway, buses, and trolleybuses, operated by different service providers. The Athens metro network includes three lines with 67 stations, covering a length of 85.3 km and carrying about 1,400,000 passengers per day [41,42]. Line 1 was put into service in 1869, and lines 2 and 3 in 2000.…”

“…The demo area is the 20 km long corridor between Athens Airport and the Doukissis Plakentias metro station (with Park and Ride facilities), along Attiki Odos toll motorway. This area comprises the territories of five (5) municipalities with low population densities compared to the core center of the Athens municipality (Figure 1 and Table 2) [42,44,45]. Note: Data extracted from ELSTAT [45]-the data have been translated and the ELSTAT bears no responsibility for the result of the modification.…”

“…Table 3. P&R facilities features in the selected intermodal hubs (Source: [42]). The overall goal of the demo is to enhance the connection of low-density Attica Region areas to public transport (PT) modes, and specifically to the metro lines, through the provision of demand-responsive ride-sharing services.…”

“…Demographic and travel demand features of municipalities represented in the study area. (Source:[42,44,45]). …”