Travel Behavior–Based Investigation on the Prospective Users’ Willingness to Pay for the Development of Electric Two-Wheeler Infrastructure in Urban Context

Abstract

The rapid urbanization and subsequent motorization experienced in India have profound negative implications on the environment due to increased exhaust emission levels. India is one of the biggest global markets for the motorized two-wheeler (M2W) segment. Therefore, replacing M2Ws with electric two-wheelers (E2Ws) is considered essential to mitigate the adverse effects on the environment. However, developing the required infrastructure to support the operation, especially as desired by the prospective users, is essential to accelerate the acceptance of E2Ws by Indian commuters. Therefore, a travel behavior–based investigation was carried out in this study to evaluate the prospective users’ preferences for the E2W infrastructure-specific attributes. The preferences were investigated in terms of willingness to pay (WTP) for the improvement of infrastructure attributes. The WTP is generally considered a measure of user benefit associated with a specific attribute. For the stated purpose, a stated preference experiment was designed, and preferences of the prospective users for different infrastructure settings were collected from E2W prospective users in Hyderabad. The preference data were analyzed by developing appropriate discrete choice models, namely, multinomial logit and random parameter logit (RPL) models. Further, the influence of socioeconomic and trip characteristics of the prospective E2W users on the infrastructure attributes was also evaluated by examining the heterogeneity around the means of random parameters in the RPL model. The results reveal that prospective users have a higher WTP for improving the public charging infrastructure and parking infrastructure availability. Characteristics such as gender, age, and journey time significantly influence the prospective E2W users’ WTP associated with infrastructure attributes. Based on the results and inferences, the necessary policy measures for developing adequate infrastructure for E2Ws are also presented in this study.