Seite
DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.8| LAI: SMART CITY TRANSITION_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 54 A significant gendered difference can also be ob­served in table 2(Q5.3) for the average time re­quired to reach the destination of the participants’ most frequent journey. Figure 3 shows males take more time to reach their usual destinations than females. This argument is substantiated by the re­sult of the in-depth interviews. By analysing the ra­tio of travel distance and average time taken with regard to males and females, figure 4 reveals that males generally have a lower average of kilometres per hour than females, confirming that males spend more time to reach their destinations than females. than males regarding the reduction of travel time and traffic congestion by using SBMS because the usage for females is rather unnecessary for their most frequent journeys. Five consideration factors were examined, and table 2(Q7) identified accessible information as the only factor showing a significant gendered difference in the consideration of using transportation modes. Figure 6 demonstrates that females tend to pay less consideration to accessible information when decid­ing to use certain transportation modes than males. Since one benefit of using SBMS is to easily access traffic information concerning schedules and con­nections, 23 the lower priority of accessible informa­tion may contribute to the reason females use fewer route-planning services. Fig. 4: Ratio of travel distance to average time taken by gender Looking at the two statements questioning if SBMS can help reduce travel time and even traffic conges­tion, significant gendered differences are also re­vealed in table 2(Q6.1f, Q6.1g). Figure 5 suggests that females tend to be unsure whether the travel time and chance of traffic congestion could be reduced by SBMS. Interpreting this analysis together with the previous results, the higher average of kilometres per hour implies that females exhibit a tendency to travel to familiar destinations, which perhaps are also closer to their residential areas. This tendency possibly explains their lower use of route-planning services compared to males. Although a familiar travel environment does not contribute to less traf­fic congestion, travellers might know more about any alternative solutions even without assistance from SBMS. Therefore, females might be more doubtful Fig. 6: Accessible information as the main consideration factor by gender b. Access to SBMS This paper suggests seven problems of SBMS as the common issues faced by users. Referring to figure 7, app crashes, excessive battery or data usage, and incorrect ETA are the problems most identified by survey participants. However, table 3(Q4.3) reveals none of them has observed gendered differences. Significant gender differences can only be observed for the problems of limited availability of services and poor customer service(see figs. 8 and 9), which are logically the problems encountered when util­ising shared mobility services enabled by SBMS.