Microincentives for Sustainable Mobility in Europe

This resource features two stated preference studies aimed at understanding how sensitive: 

1. Car users are to incentives to switch to an Incentivised Multimodal Trip: Aimed to assess the willingness of car users to switch to alternative modes of transport like public transport, shared mobility, or ride-hailing/taxi, under a new fare system offering microincentives. Fourteen scenarios were presented, with each scenario offering a different combination of travel time, mode, and cost. Participants chose between re-doing their current car trip at an increased cost or opting for an alternative route with an incentivised cost. 

1. Peak-time public transport users are to incentives to switch to an Off-Peak Trip: to understand the trade-offs that public transport users are willing to make regarding cost and time to avoid overcrowding during peak hours. Respondents were presented with scenarios where they could choose between travelling during peak hours at a certain cost or travelling before or after peak hours at a lower cost.

The produced impact

Multimodal Trip: The study found that a discount of 50% or less was needed to incentivise users to switch to a multimodal trip 10 minutes faster or more. Oslo showed the highest willingness to switch with a 50% discount. Barcelona and Madrid saw a rapid decrease in the necessary discount as the time saved increased.  

Off-Peak Trip: The study revealed a high level of inflexibility among public transport users towards changing their travel time. Discounts between 60%-85% were needed to achieve a 50% likelihood of switching to a trip 10-30 minutes before or after peak time. 

Key lessons learnt

Multimodal Trip: Microincentives have the potential to significantly shift travel behaviour from private cars to multimodal trips. Users are highly sensitive to cost, especially in cities where the cost of private car ownership and usage is high. Users are more willing to switch to multimodal trips when offered substantial time savings.  

Off-Peak Trip: Users are generally inflexible when it comes to adjusting their travel time to avoid peak hours. – Public transport users are less price-sensitive than car users and require larger discounts to incentivise off-peak travel.