College Students’ Choice Behavior of Electric Two-Wheeled Vehicle

Many countries have made great efforts to boost the use of electric vehicles in recent years; for example, advanced countries including Norway and the Netherlands in Europe and the United States have enhanced people’s willingness to use electric vehicles by means of appropriate subsidies and suppression of private vehicles. In Asia, Taiwan has been promoting the policy of replacing traditional fuel two-wheeled vehicles (FTWVs) with electric two-wheeled vehicles (ETWVs) and strengthening the policy by means of replacing a large number of old FTWVs and subsidizing the purchase of ETWVs. This study took college students as the subjects, as they were the first potential group to buy ETWVs, and their concept of environmental sustainability can be shaped for cultivating vehicle use habits. This study applies a questionnaire to probe into the ETWV usage preferences of college students and explores the significant factors affecting college students’ purchase of ETWVs. This study uses a mixed logit (MXL) model for estimation. The results of model estimation show that those who are younger, have higher income, have good experience in using ETWVs, and are in user-friendly external traffic environments, are more inclined to choose ETWVs. In the future, government units can formulate policies to promote ETWVs according to the characteristics of different relevant factors.

Consumer preferences for grocery purchasing during the COVID-19 pandemic: a quantile regression approach

PurposeThe objective is to determine if consumer preferences for grocery purchasing are impacted by the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and whether these preferences differ by demographic and psychographic characteristics.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct an online discrete choice experiment (DCE) with 900 U.S. consumers to assess grocery shopping preferences under various scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. decreasing, constant and increasing cases). The attribute of interest is the purchasing method (i.e. in-store purchase, in-store pickup, curbside pickup and home delivery) with minimum order requirements, time windows and fees as secondary attributes. Heterogeneity in individual-level willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates for the main attribute is analyzed by means of mixed logit and quantile regression techniques.FindingsThe mixed logit model reveals heterogeneity in WTP estimates for grocery purchasing methods across participants. According to estimates from quantile regressions, the heterogeneity is partly explained by the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the home delivery purchasing method is less preferred when the number of cases is decreasing. The results also show that consumer preferences for grocery shopping methods are affected more by psychographic characteristics than demographic characteristics. Consumers who comply with COVID-19 directives (e.g. wear face coverings) have stronger preferences for curbside pickup and home delivery, particularly at the tails of the WTP distributions.Originality/valueAlthough there is much data on food consumer behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic at the aggregate level, there are few analyses of grocery shopping preferences at the individual level. The study represents a first attempt to relate individuals' demographic and psychographic characteristics to their grocery shopping preferences during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus yielding numerous recommendations in terms of consumer segmentation.

Preferred Lung Cancer Screening Modalities in China: A Discrete Choice Experiment

This study aimed to identify preferred lung cancer screening modalities in a Chinese population and predict uptake rates of different modalities. A discrete choice experiment questionnaire was administered to 392 Chinese individuals aged 50–74 years who were at high risk for lung cancer. Each choice set had two lung screening options and an option to opt-out, and respondents were asked to choose the most preferred one. Both mixed logit analysis and stepwise logistic analysis were conducted to explore whether preferences were related to respondent characteristics and identify which kinds of respondents were more likely to opt out of any screening. On mixed logit analysis, attributes that were predictive of choice at 1% level of statistical significance included the screening interval, screening venue, and out-of-pocket costs. The preferred screening modality seemed to be screening by low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) + blood test once a year in a general hospital at a cost of RMB 50; this could increase the uptake rate by 0.40 compared to the baseline setting. On stepwise logistic regression, those with no endowment insurance were more likely to opt out; those who were older and housewives/househusbands, and those with a health check habit and with commercial endowment insurance were less likely to opt out from a screening programme. There was considerable variance between real risk and self-perceived risk of lung cancer among respondents. Lung cancer screening uptake can be increased by offering various screening modalities, so as to help policymakers further design the screening modality.

Preferences for healthcare services among hypertension patients in China: a discrete choice experiment

ObjectivesOur study aimed to support evidence-informed policy-making on patient-centred care by investigating preferences for healthcare services among hypertension patients.DesignWe identified six attributes of healthcare services for a discrete choice experiment (DCE), and applied Bayesian-efficient design with blocking techniques to generate choice sets. After conducting the DCE, we used a mixed logit regression model to investigate patients’ preferences for each attribute and analysed the heterogeneities in preferences. Estimates of willingness to pay were derived from regression coefficients.SettingThe DCE was conducted in Jiangsu province and Shanghai municipality in China.ParticipantsPatients aged 18 years or older with a history of hypertension for at least 2 years and who took medications regularly were recruited.ResultsPatients highly valued healthcare services that produced good treatment effects (β=4.502, p<0.001), followed by travel time to healthcare facilities within 1 hour (β=1.285, p<0.001), and the effective physician–patient communication (β=0.771, p<0.001). Continuity of care and minimal waiting time were also positive predictors (p<0.001). However, the out-of-pocket cost was a negative predictor of patients’ choice (β=−0.168, p<0.001). Older adults, patients with good health-related quality of life, had comorbidities, and who were likely to visit secondary and tertiary hospitals cared more about favourable effects (p<0.05). Patients were willing to pay ¥2489 (95% CI ¥2013 to ¥2965) as long as the clinical benefits gained were substantial.ConclusionsOur findings highlight the importance of effective, convenient, efficient, coordinated and patient-centred care for chronic diseases like hypertension. Policy-makers and healthcare providers are suggested to work on aligning the service provision with patients’ preferences.

Electric Bicyclist Injury Severity during Peak Traffic Periods: A Random-Parameters Approach with Heterogeneity in Means and Variances

Accidents involving electric bicycles, a popular means of transportation in China during peak traffic periods, have increased. However, studies have seldom attempted to detect the unique crash consequences during this period. This study aims to explore the factors influencing injury severity in electric bicyclists during peak traffic periods and provide recommendations to help devise specific management strategies. The random-parameters logit or mixed logit model is used to identify the relationship between different factors and injury severity. The injury severity is divided into four categories. The analysis uses automobile and electric bicycle crash data of Xi’an, China, between 2014 and 2019. During the peak traffic periods, the impact of low visibility significantly varies with factors such as areas with traffic control or without streetlights. Furthermore, compared with traveling in a straight line, three different turnings before the crash reduce the likelihood of severe injuries. Roadside protection trees are the most crucial measure guaranteeing riders’ safety during peak traffic periods. This study reveals the direction, magnitude, and randomness of factors that contribute to electric bicycle crashes. The results can help safety authorities devise targeted transportation safety management and planning strategies for peak traffic periods.

Preferences for a Multimedia Web Platform to Increase Awareness of Cultural Heritage: A Stated Choice Experiment

As stated by UNESCO, cultural heritage (CH) (tangible and intangible) plays an important role in inheriting, maintaining and passing the values and knowledge from past generations to the next ones. To create an interest and raise the awareness of CH, variety of media sources (i.e., maps, text, 3D models, virtual reality) are exploited. These multimedia sources are brought together on web platforms that preserve and disseminate tangible and intangible CH information, with the aim to reach to large audiences. Although there are many examples of these multimedia web platforms, there is little research on understanding people’s willingness to use such multimedia web platforms and which media type people prefer for understanding and learning about CH. This is important to address since the success and sustainability of such platforms lies on their acceptance by the target audience in terms of data representation and the ease of information provision. To address this problem, this research applied a stated choice experiment to represent a hypothetical multimedia web platform to respondents. Different media types were tested for the description of CH (spatial content and historical content). The collected data from 630 respondents was analysed by a mixed logit model in order to determine the preference towards different media in a given hypothetical multimedia web platform to increase awareness of CH. The results indicate that people prefer multiple media rather than a single medium. Especially, adding dynamic media (i.e., 3D models and videos) to static media (i.e., 2D map and text) increase people’s willingness to use the multimedia web platform. The results help to formulate a new multimedia web platform and can help representatives of heritage sites to create a more sustainable way to broadcast information about CH to the public.