Commuter choice of UAM-friendly neighborhoods

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) which provides swift intra- and intercity transportation services has the potential to induce shifts in individuals’ commuting and residential decisions. It is anticipated that, in residential areas, UAM services would enhance accessibility for residents. An UAM-friendly neighborhood represents a novel, integrated neighborhood concept that provides the infrastructure and travel environment required to facilitate UAM services, thereby promoting sustainable neighborhood development and improving accessibility. To gain a deeper understanding of commuters’ choice behavior in UAM-friendly neighborhoods, we designed a stated choice experiment. Using data collected in Beijing city, we estimated a mixed logit model with interaction effects to identify the choice preferences of different people while capturing the unobserved preference heterogeneity. We found that individuals generally prefer to reside in such neighborhoods where the access distance to UAM vertiports is within one kilometer, the parking fee is either low (5 yuan/day) or free, the commuting time by UAT is 15 min, and drone window-docking delivery services are available. Households with high incomes (>400,000 yuan/year) and those owning a car are likely to adopt these novel neighborhoods. There is a varying degree of heterogeneity observed regarding residential location and distance to UAM vertiports among individuals in different age groups. Results of the elasticity analysis indicate that UAT commuting cost has the greatest impact on the likelihood of residing in UAM-friendly neighborhoods.