Exploring Preferences for Transportation Modes in an Urban Air Mobility Environment: Munich Case Study

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a recent mobility concept with the potential to reduce travel time and change travel patterns. When evaluating the introduction of UAM, understanding the potential users’ choice behavior regarding current available urban transportation modes and autonomous transportation services is essential to demand estimation. This preliminary research intends to gain insight into the travel behavior impacts of autonomous transportation modes, especially UAM, by deriving measures for transportation service attributes and identifying characteristics of potential users who might adopt autonomous transportation services, particularly the services of UAM. Thus, a stated preference questionnaire was designed and distributed in Munich metropolitan region. A main mode choice multinomial logit model and several sub-models, based on market segmentation, were estimated regarding four transportation alternatives: private car, public transportation, autonomous taxi, and autonomous flying taxi. The results indicate that travel time, travel cost, and safety may be critical determinants in autonomous transportation mode adoption. The potential consumers may be willing to pay more for using autonomous transportation modes, especially the service of UAM. Among different market segments, younger individuals, as well as older individuals with high household income, are more likely to adopt UAM. In addition, during the market entry stage, potential travelers may favor UAM particularly for performing non-commuting trips.