Assessing the acceptance of New Shared Mobility (NSM) services is crucial to understanding the motivations and barriers that influence users’ intentions. During the first year of the project, an initial acceptance evaluation of NSM was carried out in each Living Lab (LL) to assess how both users and non-users currently perceive these services. This evaluation helps to identify the most influential factors on the intention to use NSM and provides recommendations for the LLs and future project steps.

The main findings are:

• Perceived time savings: The most important factor influencing the intention to use NSM is the perceived time saving. Improving real and perceived time savings is crucial for better service acceptance. This can be achieved by anticipating potential route delays, simplifying booking procedures and providing real-time journey updates.
• Perceived availability: The perceived availability of NSM is another important predictor of usage intention. This can be improved by identifying travel patterns, using local historical data and providing real-time information on service availability.
• Perceived safety: Perceptions of safety also influence the intention to use NSM. Equipping vehicles with safety features, clearly communicating these safety measures and explaining how the services work can increase user confidence.
• Social influence: Social influence plays an important role in promoting the adoption of NSM. Potential users are influenced by the travel behaviour of friends and family. Sharing testimonials and fostering a sense of community responsibility within companies, campuses and residential areas can positively influence service perceptions.
• Encourage first-time use: Existing users are more likely to continue using NSM than potential users. Therefore, initiatives such as demonstration days and promotional offers for first-time users could be effective in encouraging initial trials of the service.

The results of this initial acceptance assessment will be crucial to compare with the results of subsequent phases of the project, after the innovations have been implemented, in order to observe the evolution of the users’ perception of the NSM.

This information is part of the research done as part of the Deliverable 1.5 submitted by project partner Théa Cosnier, from VEDECOM.