How do you commute? Investigating the use of privately-owned micromobility modes for commuting trips in four European countries

Micromobility is defined as all transport modes (scooters, e-scooters, skateboards, hoverboards…) allowing mobility users to make a hybrid usage and behave either as a pedestrian or a vehicle at their convenience. Micromobility modes can be human-powered or self-balancing, shared or privately-owned. Micromobility is viewed as a promising way to decarbonize local transport. In this paper, we use a survey conducted in 2018 among mobility users in four European countries, gathering 4,873 observations from commuters in France, Germany, Spain and United Kingdom. Using semi-non parametric ordered probit models, we investigate the way privately-owned micromobility users commute: exclusively using a micromobility mode (monomodal practice), or using it as a complement or a substitute to other transport modes (multimodal practice). In the four countries studied, the sociodemographic characteristics are homogeneous and concern mainly male, young, and highly educated commuters. Micromobility commuters also live in large agglomerations. Comfort and physical activity, as well as a constrained travel schedule and a positive perception of travel time when commuting, are in favor of monomodal micromobility commuting. Limit the fatigue of travel is related to multimodal micromobility. Multimodal micromobility commuting is positively correlated with the frequent use of urban transit and private car. Conversely, a negative relationship is observed with the bike and taxi. Among public transport, the bus and the tram are preferred to the metro. Our results provide some indications for local authorities to better integrate micromobility practice in local transport policies, but also to finer design built environments, especially in small towns.