Psychological insights into sustainable mobility: findings from a study on transportation choice and Mobility-as-a-Service propensity

The transportation sector, facilitated by smartphone apps, offers a wide range of mobility services. Despite the wide availability of these modern mobility options in urban environments, their integration into daily routines remains sporadic, limiting their potential for implementation. Recently, Mobility as a Service (MaaS) has emerged as a solution to provide a single booking platform for different modes of transportation, considering the needs and preferences of users. However, it is still unclear what are the human factors that are involved in the choice of mobility options to achieve sustainability. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between some psychological dimensions related to the habits and frequency of using sustainable transportation in daily life, considering habits and frequency as an expression of Pro-Environmental Behavior (PEB). To achieve this objective, a survey, including questionnaires about vales, personal norms, pro-environmental behaviors and concerns on environmental threats were administered. Responses were used as input for a Structural Equation Model, that allowed to highlight the role of latent constructs on the adoption of sustainable modes, potentially included in a MaaS system. The results highlighted the relationships between psychological dimensions, such as biospheric and altruistic values, beliefs and norms linked to environmentalism, and finally habits and frequency of use of sustainable transportation modes. In particular, the most relevant relationships are evident for biospheric values as the main predictors of environment-related beliefs. Furthermore, environmentalism is explained by personal norms, suggesting that the presence of moral obligations toward nature conservation corresponds to the development of environmentalism with the ultimate adoption of PEB. Although of lesser intensity, other dimensions may contribute to the propensity toward sustainable urban mobility and, therefore, to the adoption of MaaS systems. This analysis proved useful in exploring the key human factors influencing sustainable mobility choices to promote environmentally friendly mobility, including the innovative concept of MaaS.