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Exploring usage patterns and safety perceptions of the users of electric three-
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 Case Studies on Transport Policy 8 (2020) 39–48

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Exploring usage patterns and safety perceptions of the users of electric three- T
wheeled paratransit in Patna, India
Shiv Priye, M. Manoj
⁎

Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Electric three-wheelers (popularly known as electric rickshaws) are battery-powered vehicles that have emerged
Electric vehicles in many Indian cities as an environment-friendly and energy-efficient paratransit mode of transport. The gov-
Informal public transport ernment of India is developing policies for the broader adoption of the mode to promote sustainable mobility and
User characteristics accessibility. While many Indian cities have been operating electric rickshaws, little is documented about the
Travel behaviour
usage patterns of this mode. An investigation into the usage patterns and safety perceptions of the riders would
Grey relation analysis
provide essential inputs to the planning and design of electric rickshaw services for a city. Using a primary data
collected from Patna, India, the study explores the travel patterns and safety perceptions of electric rickshaw
riders. Statistical models were developed to investigate the effects of socio-demographics and travel context
attributes on trip rate, mode replacement and continuation of the use of electric rickshaws in the future. The
analysis reveals that electric rickshaws replace a majority of trips made on conventional (gasoline-based) auto-
rickshaws. It is found that electric rickshaw is a popular mode choice for educational—and shopping-related
trips and students are the frequent users. Further, to identify the most relevant safety issues related to electric
rickshaws, grey relation analysis (GRA) was applied to the scaled items. The results disclose that the users are
highly concerned over the light body, solid covers and railings, and about the rear-end protection of the electric
rickshaws. The on-board safety of small children is also of high concerns. Individuals who opine that electric
rickshaws require rear-end protection or need solid covers and railings will be less likely to use this mode in the
future. Further, females are less likely to continue the use whereas students would use electric rickshaws in the
future, all else being equal. The findings of the study would help develop plans and policies for the improvement
of electric rickshaw services to have a sustainable public transportation system that is less dependent on con-
ventional fuels.

1. Introduction and Haider, 2007), and the urban poor relies on paratransit to fulfill
their travel needs (MoUD, 2008). The paratransit modes (especially
Urbanization and motorization have put tremendous pressure on three-wheelers) are the key mobility options for the urban poor (Mani
the environment and its resources. Accordingly, greenhouse gas emis- and Pant, 2012; Harding et al., 2016). It is found that paratransit index,
sions and energy security have become a significant challenge for i.e., the number of paratransit per 10,000 individuals, is higher in cities
governments and scientists across the world (IPCC, 2007). It has been that lack proper public transport (MoUD, 2008). According to Mani
predicted that the reserved fuel in the world would get depleted by et al. (2012), Tier-I (population above 4 million) and Tier-II cities
2050 (IEA and OECD, 2003; Shafiee and Topal, 2009). The Paris (population between 1 and 4 million) have nearly 50,000 and
Agreement of the United Nations is committed to addressing climate 15,000–30,000 three-wheeled auto-rickshaws respectively which
change (UNFCC, 2015). To minimize the negative externalities of the means on an average, 4 to 16 auto-rickshaws serve the travel needs of
transportation sector, researchers are of the opinion that sustainable every 1,000 people of Tier-I and Tier-II cities. This trend shows the
public transport can play a significant role (Maitra and Sadhukhan, importance that paratransit have in Indian cities.
2013; Pérez et al., 2015; Jain and Tiwari, 2016). However, in India, due However, the Indian government's policy initiatives like Jawaharlal
to the insufficient and poor quality public transport, medium–, and Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM, 2005) and the Na-
higher-income group travelers are shifting to private modes (Badami tional Urban Transport Policy (NUTP, 2006) have not emphasized on

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: manojm@[Link] (M. Manoj).

[Link]
Received 28 November 2018; Received in revised form 1 January 2020; Accepted 2 January 2020
Available online 07 January 2020
2213-624X/ © 2020 World Conference on Transport Research Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Priye and M. Manoj Case Studies on Transport Policy 8 (2020) 39–48

Fig. 1. Electric Three-Wheelers in Patna.

improving the paratransit sector. Recently, the Working Group on indicating safety issues. Understanding the safety issues of electric
Urban Transport emphasized the need for technology development and rickshaws, many district authorities in India have prohibited the use of
enhancement of paratransit services (NTDPC, 2012). It is recognized this mode for school-travel (e.g., Government of Bihar, 2016). With the
that paratransit has immense potential to provide clean and low-emis- abrupt increase in the number of electric rickshaws and accidents, there
sion mobility options (Kumar et al., 2016). However, very few studies is a serious debate going on whether to ban or regularize these vehicles
have been undertaken in this area (Kunhikrishnan and Srinivasan, (Padmanabhan et al., 2014; Marwah and Bawa, 2016). However, before
2018). The Smart Cities Mission of Government of India has stressed taking any leap in that direction, extensive research is needed to have a
upon promoting sustainable modes of transportation. The Smart City proper understanding of the users of this mode; user travel context and
concept is proposed to improve the life quality of citizen by enabling their perceptions of the safety of this mode. An investigation into these
comprehensive city (re)development and upgrading programs aspects would provide essential inputs to planning and policy because
(Zubizarreta et al., 2015). The practice of an attractive and environ- of the following reasons.
ment-friendly mode of paratransit for last-mile connectivity is one of First, understanding the users' profile and their socio-economic
the aims of the urban mobility plan of “Smart Cities Mission” (Smart status would inform who is willing to use electric rickshaws and their
Cities Mission, 2018). ability to pay for the use (in case there is a change in fare policy). The
Given this, battery-operated electric three-wheelers or 'Electric knowledge would help decide future policy for electric rickshaws so
rickshaws' (see Fig. 1) have entered urban India. Electric rickshaw is a that the demand is sustained or improved. Second, an understanding of
battery-powered three-wheeled vehicle and comes under the purview of the travel characteristics would inform the travel demand for electric
paratransit services. The Indian Parliament has legalized electric rick- rickshaws in a city and the spatial extent for which the people want to
shaws by passing an amendment to the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) use the system. The origin–destination scenario would help uncover the
Bill, 2015. According to the Indian Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, network usage of electric rickshaws and help locate the charging fa-
2015, the electric rickshaw is defined as “a special purpose battery op- cilities and maintenance stations. Third, research is also necessary to
erated vehicle having three wheels and power not exceeding 4,000 W, to investigate the safety issues concerning electric rickshaw users as the
carry passengers for hire” (Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2015). safety of life and goods are directly related to transport safety (Márquez
These vehicles are powered by brushless DC motors for vehicle pro- et al., 2014). Studies have found that users’ perception of safety plays a
pulsion and the energy is supplied by conventional lead-acid batteries significant role in the choice of mode of travel, particularly public
(Majumdar and Jash, 2015). In India, where there is a lack of proper transport (Delbosc and Currie, 2012). Currently, in India, electric
infrastructure to accommodate full-fledged public transport, electric rickshaw parts are imported from neighboring countries and are locally
rickshaws have come up as an affordable mode of paratransit for assembled without developing/following design guidelines, leading to
commuting. These vehicles have come out at the time when debates are suspicions regarding the safety of the vehicle from the structural and
going on regarding energy security and reduction of greenhouse gas technical point of views (Bhasin and Bhardwaj, 2014; Padmanabhan
emissions. Electric rickshaws are considered to be affordable and en- et al., 2014). Also, electric rickshaws run on mixed traffic context,
vironmental-friendly and have the potential to reduce carbon-footprint making the passengers and by-passers vulnerable from a safety stand-
from passenger transport activities, thus giving stiff competition to point (see Fig. 1). Research on these aspects would add to the knowl-
other popular paratransit modes such as conventional (gasoline-based) edge on this important and growing transportation mode and for pro-
three-wheeled auto-rickshaws, mini buses, among others. posing policy measures to augment the same. Furthermore, research of
the kind presented here would help contribute to the agendas of “Smart
1.1. Problem identification Cities Mission” of Government of India since last mile connectivity is
one of its primary focuses and electric rickshaw could offer energy-ef-
Although electric rickshaw has certain advantages over other ficient and sustainable mobility option to ensure seamless travel.
modes, it presents some major challenges to transportation planners Given the background, the objectives of the research are as follows.
and policymakers regarding its impact on the transportation system and
road safety. The recent Government of India reports show that electric i. To understand the socio-demographic characteristics of electric
rickshaws are involved in nearly 380 (registered) fatal accidents in rickshaw users and their electric rickshaw use patterns.
India in 2016 (MoRTH, 2017). It is the first time that the Government of ii. To investigate the mode choice of respondents if electric rickshaws
India has collected data regarding electric rickshaw-related accidents, are not available.

40
S. Priye and M. Manoj Case Studies on Transport Policy 8 (2020) 39–48

iii. To explore the safety perceptions of electric rickshaw users and to income groups and it creates urban employment, especially for the
understand the role of safety perceptions on the future use of unskilled persons. Some general negative perception about paratransit,
electric rickshaws. as highlighted by researchers, include contribution to traffic conges-
tion; safety issues; emission of harmful pollutants; association with il-
The study combines descriptive analysis (univariate) and regression- legal activities and the impacts on price irregularities (Silcock, 1981;
based approaches (to control for confounders) to understand users’ Cervero, 1991, 2000; Cervero and Golub, 2007; Joewono and Kubota,
profiles and their travel patterns. In order to explore users’ profiles and 2007a; Kumarage et al., 2010; Min, 2011; Phun and Yai, 2016).
to provide broad insights into the travel patterns, univariate descriptive Since electric rickshaw is a new product in India, besides a few
analysis is undertaken. Further, for travel behaviour analysis, regres- market reports (Harding and Rojesh, 2014; Chandran and Brahmachari,
sion-based statistical approaches are adopted as they could reveal the 2015; Marwah and Bawa, 2016), limited empirical research exists
strengths and association of different explainers in the presence of other within the peer-reviewed literature. Some of the past studies are related
variables. The paper explores travel patterns and safety perceptions of to the operational and technical aspects of electric rickshaws (Harding,
electric rickshaw riders through different indicators. To understand trip 2014; Singh, 2014; Majumdar and Jash, 2015; Sreejith and Rajagopal,
demand, a logistic regression model is applied to classify the riders 2016; ICLIE, 2017; Vashist, 2018). The existing literature concludes
based on trip demand. To investigate the most relevant safety-related that electric rickshaws could provide environmental-friendly, energy-
aspects of electric rickshaws, grey relation analysis is adopted and using efficient and cost-effective mobility in cities and towns of India
the ranked statements, logistic regression is implemented to understand (Rajvanshi, 1997, 2002). It can be seen that not much emphasis has
the influence of safety features on the continuation of the electric been given to explore the socio-economic profile, travel behavior, and
rickshaw. Further to explore the mode preferences of riders when safety perception of electric rickshaw users.
electric rickshaws are not available, multinomial logistic regression is
applied due to its ability to handle nominal data. 3. Survey design and data collection
The remaining sections of the paper are structured as follows. The
next section gives an overview of paratransit. Following that, Section 3 A survey was conducted in Patna to capture the travel character-
introduces the study area and survey design. Subsequently, the socio- istics and safety perceptions of electric rickshaw users. Patna is one of
demographic characteristics of electric rickshaw users and their usage the “100 Smart Cities” proposed under the “Smart Cities Mission” of the
patterns are discussed in Section 4. This section also investigates the Government of India (Smart Cities Mission, 2018). The Patna Municipal
safety perceptions of users about electric rickshaw and also explores the Corporation (PMC) has a population of 1.68 million (Census of India,
factors that influence the continuation of the use of electric rickshaw. 2011). The area covered in PMC is 99.45 sq. km and the road density is
The next section summarizes the paper and highlights the main findings 13 km per sq. km. The road network is inadequate since only 10% of the
of the study. The planning and policy implications of the research are area available for circulation against the standard requirement of
highlighted in Section 6. The final section discusses the scope of further 15–20% (Government of Bihar, 2011). In Patna, the formal public
research in this area. transport service is not adequate (Sinha et al., 2017) and this has given
rise to the proliferation of informal public transport (privately operated
2. An overview of paratransit mini buses and three-wheelers) which has a modal share of 27% (TERI,
2014). The recently emerged electric rickshaws confirm to the opera-
Public transport can be classified into two main categories: formal tional features of paratransit modes. That is, electric rickshaws do not
and informal (Kumar et al., 2016). Government organizations generally adhere to fixed routes and schedules, and do not have designated stops.
operate the formal transit. City transport infrastructure is planned and Electric rickshaws follow 'demand-responsive' operations in Patna. The
designed according to the requirements of the formal public transport electric rickshaws plying in Patna can accommodate a maximum of four
modes such as bus rapid transit systems, rail rapid transit systems, adults in addition to the driver. The cost of fare for electric rickshaws in
among others (Mohareb and Felix, 2017). On the other hand, informal Patna as compared to that of conventional fuel-based auto-rickshaws
transit is usually owned and operated by private operators and in- varies by regions (i.e. in some locations it is slightly higher whereas in
dividuals. Informal public transport is a demand-responsive service and other places it is the same). However, it is higher than that of mini buses
does not adhere to fixed routes or schedules. Vehicle types that suit the and cheaper than that of human-powered pedal-rickshaws.
local user requirements and infrastructure – e.g., three-wheeled pedal This research employed a paper-based questionnaire survey to
rickshaws, three-wheeled auto-rickshaws, taxis, and mini buses – are gather travel behavior and perceptions related information from a
generally used as informal transit services (Gadepalli et al., 2018). In sample of electric rickshaw users in Patna. The questionnaire comprised
scholarly literature, such informal modes of (public) transport are of three sections. In the first section, the respondents were asked to rate
commonly referred to as ‘paratransit’, ‘low-cost transport’, ‘intermediate their levels of agreement with various safety-related attributes on a
public transport', ‘artisanal transport’ 'flexible transport service', 'demand five-point Likert-type ordinal scale (where “1″ indicated “strongly dis-
responsive transport', 'third world transport', 'alongside transit' or 'shared agree” while “5” indicated “strongly agree”). Also, the respondents
taxis' (Cervero, 2000; Lave and Mathias, 2000; Phun and Yai, 2016; were asked whether they continue the use of electric rickshaws in the
Schalekamp, 2017). future. In the second section, the respondents were requested to provide
The concept of paratransit is different in developed and developing details of their last electric rickshaw trip, such as trip purpose, trip
countries (Silcock, 1981; Joewono and Kubota, 2007b; Ghosh and origin and destination, the choice of alternative mode for the previous
Kalra, 2016). “Paratransit usually refers to 'demand responsive' and 'door- trip in case electric rickshaws were not present, weekly trip rate on
to-door transport service', provided exclusively for the elderly and people electric rickshaw and so forth, and the final section solicited their socio-
with disability” (Cervero and Golub, 2007; Davison et al., 2014; Fei and demographic characteristics. The questions related to travel char-
Chen, 2015; Neven et al., 2015) in developed countries. Whereas in acteristics and user profile were kept last based on the conclusions of
developing countries, due to lower living standard and poor public Rastogi and Rao (2002) and Suman et al. (2016). For investigating
transport services, paratransit serves the functions of formal public users’ perceptions related to safety, a thorough literature review was
transport (Lave and Mathias, 2000; Cervero and Golub, 2007; Behrens carried out. Attributes such as riding behavior, driver skills, speed,
et al., 2017; Nugroho and Zusman, 2018). There are several advantages stability, structure and body of the vehicle, safety features, traffic
of paratransit as evident from the literature. Paratransit fills the service condition and infrastructure are some of the critical aspects related to
gap created due to inadequate public transport; it is flexible and sen- transportation safety as evident from previous studies (Joewono and
sitive to the changing market; it is affordable by low–and medium- Kubota, 2006; Weinert et al., 2007; Ma et al., 2010; Yavuz and Welch,

41
S. Priye and M. Manoj Case Studies on Transport Policy 8 (2020) 39–48

Table 1
Description of Safety Attributes with their abbreviations.
Codes Attributes Statements*

A1 Pavement condition The body of electric rickshaw shakes while driving on undulating surfaces
A2 Light Body Electric rickshaw will have a severe impact in case of accidents due to its very light body
A3 Solid cover and Railing Electric rickshaw must have solid covers and railings
A4 Driver's Behavior Drivers drive recklessly and violate traffic rules
A5 Turning Points Fear of over-turning comes when electric rickshaw takes a sharp turn at curves
A6 Rear-end protection There should be protection from rear-end collision
A7 Feels unsafe when fast-moving vehicles pass closely There is a feeling of unsafe when high-speed vehicles pass electric rickshaw very closely
A8 Threat of snatching Electric rickshaw is unsafe at signals due to the threat of snatching, robbery, etc.
A9 Seat Belts There must have seat belts for every rider
A10 Unsafe for small children Electric rickshaw is unsafe for small children who are traveling alone
A11 Unsafe in a mixed traffic situation Electric rickshaw is unsafe in a mixed-traffic situation
A12 Unsafe during night time Traveling in an electric rickshaw during night time is unsafe

*Likert-type five-point ordinal scale was used (1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree)

2010; Mani et al., 2012; Rana et al., 2013; Lv et al., 2015; Haustein and respondents were graduates or qualified above it. Thirty-five, 11 and 7
Møller, 2016). Moreover, to understand the ergonomics of the electric percentages of respondents were completed intermediate (12th), ma-
rickshaw, several rounds of discussions with the manufacturers and triculation (10th) and primary school, respectively. In the occupation
experts in the transportation safety field were also undertaken. In this category, about 37% of respondents were doing jobs/businesses or self-
regard, about 20 commuters belonging to different age-groups were employed. It is interesting to observe that students comprised a sig-
also interviewed to know their experiences while commuting on electric nificant percentage of the populace (33%) riding electric rickshaws in
rickshaws. Several reports related to accidents involving electric rick- Patna. In this category, ‘others’ comprised of about 30% respondents
shaws were also studied to observe the reasons for the crashes. Subse- which mostly include housewives and retired individuals. In the
quently, incorporating all relevant attributes, a pilot survey was con- household monthly income category, about 5% of respondents are from
ducted among 40 electric rickshaw users in Patna to identify the ‘below 10 k’ income (INR - Indian Rupees) category. This suggests that
possible problems with the survey instrument. The final survey instru- low-income individuals depend less on electric rickshaws, probably due
ment was designed with minor modifications based on the feedback to the availability of comparatively cheaper modes such as mini buses
from the pilot survey. The safety attributes considered for the primary and bicycles in Patna. About 11%, 15%, 21% and 25% respondents
survey are summarized in Table 1 with their specific codes and de- were from 10 to 20 k, 21–30 k, 31–40 k and 41–50 k INR income ca-
scriptions. tegories, respectively. Similarly, about 23% of respondents were from
A paper-based primary questionnaire survey was then carried out ‘more than 50 k’ INR category. In the vehicle-ownership category, about
from March to April 2018, by following a face-to-face interview method 39% of respondents owned cars and about 45% owned motorized two-
(Stopher, 2012) with the help of trained volunteers. A simple random wheelers (MTWs). Here, it may be noted that vehicle-ownership in-
sampling technique (Cochran, 2007) was adopted in the study. The cludes pre-owned vehicles also.
surveyed commuters were approached – (i) onboard the randomly se- In line with expectations, the proportion of car owners is low in the
lected electric rickshaws and (ii) at the different locations of PMC sample. To understand the effect of income on vehicle ownership (car
where electric rickshaws were observed to be plying frequently. The and motorized two-wheeler), logistic regressions were run between
surveyed locations in PMC are shown in Fig. 2. Five hundred and sixty vehicle ownership (own or not) and monthly household income. In the
electric rickshaw users were approached for the survey. However, only case of car ownership, the effect of motorized two-wheelers was also
410 users participated (response rate of 73.21%). It was found that 22 considered. It can be seen from Table 2 that as income increases, the
questionnaire forms had some missing or multiple responses which probability of owning a car increases. It is similar to the observation
were then removed and after refinement, 388 completed responses made by Dargay (2001) and Suman et al. (2016). However, as the
were obtained. Since the daily electric rickshaw ridership for Patna is number of motorized two-wheelers at home increases, the probability
not available, a sample of 388 respondents is found to be statistically of having a car declines. Table 2 also shows the same trend with mo-
acceptable as per Cochran's formula (Cochran, 1977) by assuming torized two-wheelers (MTWs) as seen in car ownership model but the
maximum variability and taking 95% confidence level with ± 5% probability of owning an MTW is higher within the (income) range for
precision. medium-income groups.

4. Empirical results
4.2. Travel characteristics of electric rickshaw users
This section summarizes the empirical results. In section 4.1, a brief
Table 3 shows the travel characteristics of electric rickshaw users in
discussion about the socio-demographic profile of the sample is pro-
Patna. About 78% of the respondents make at least two (electric rick-
vided. Following this, the travel patterns of the users are discussed.
shaw) trips a week. The information on a recently completed trip on
Section 4.3 explores the respondents' perceptions of the safety of elec-
electric rickshaw suggests that the rickshaw is mainly used for non-
tric rickshaws and Section 4.4 develops a statistical model to investigate
work travel, particularly for shopping. It can also be seen that nearly
the factors shaping the continuation of the use of electric rickshaws.
30% of trips made on electric rickshaw are for education-related ac-
tivities. Surprisingly, the electric rickshaw primarily serves as a main
4.1. Socio-demographic profile mode of travel, and about 77% of the respondents used it for accessing
main activity locations in their recent trip. Finally, had electric rick-
Among the usable data, 52% respondents were male and 48% were shaws been not available, many respondents would have chosen con-
female. Age distribution suggested that the respondents mostly be- ventional three-wheeled auto-rickshaw followed by mini-buses1
longed to the age band 25–55 years (nearly 58%). Thirteen and 15
percentages of respondents were of below 18, and 18 to 24 years of age
band, respectively. In the education category, about 45% of 1
Minibus is 12–20 seater, diesel-run vehicle in Patna

42
S. Priye and M. Manoj Case Studies on Transport Policy 8 (2020) 39–48

Fig. 2. Survey locations in PMC.

Table 2 Table 3
Vehicle Ownership versus Income Categories. Travel characteristics of electric rickshaw users.
Variable Car Ownership MTW Ownership Travel Characteristics Classification Frequency Percentage

β t Prob. β t Prob. Trip Rate 0–1 Trip/week 86 22.16

2–3 Trips/week 114 29.38
Household Monthly Income 4–5 Trips/week 108 27.84
(₹) More than 5 Trips/ 80 20.62
Up to 10 k ~ ~ week
Between 10 and 20 k 1.251 1.11 0.266 1.519 1.87 0.062 Trip Purpose Work 58 14.95
Between 21 and 30 k 1.276 1.15 0.251 2.212 2.79 0.005 Business 18 04.64
Between 31 and 40 k 1.750 1.61 0.107 2.698 3.43 0.001 Education 112 28.87
Between 41 and 50 k 3.434 3.23 0.001 2.079 2.68 0.007 Recreation/Social 46 11.86
More than 50 k 5.090 4.69 0.000 0.950 1.21 0.228 Shopping 100 25.77
MTW Ownership −1.383 −4.79 0.000 – – – Others 54 13.92
Constant −2.742 −2.66 0.008 −2.079 −2.77 0.006 Mode electric rickshaws used as Main mode 297 76.55
Number of Observation 388 388 Access/Egress mode 91 23.45
Pseudo R2 0.3591 0.0806 Alternate mode chosen in Auto-rickshaw 160 41.24
Log likelihood −166.49539 −244.96685 absence of
electric rickshaws Pedal-rickshaw 36 09.28
Mini Bus 63 16.24
(another form of paratransit in Patna). Interestingly, many respondents Car 32 08.25
MTW 18 04.64
prefer to walk and bicycle than riding a motorized two-wheeler in case Walk 25 06.44
electric rickshaws are not available. In this study, the trip distance in- Bicycle 24 06.19
formation is deduced from the origin–destination details captured Others* 30 07.73
about the recent trip made on an electric rickshaw. The average trip Continue the use of electric Yes 122 31.44
rickshaws
length is observed to be 2.1 km which indicates that the respondents
use electric rickshaw for short trips. *includes pillion riding, shared ride, and official vehicles, etc.

4.2.1. Analysis of trip rate frequently. This finding is of relevance for promoting policies to im-
This section investigates the intensity of electric rickshaw travel prove electric rickshaw ridership. In line with the general wisdom, in-
(trip rates) in detail. Table 4 presents the estimation results of the lo- dividuals of car-owning households make fewer trips on electric rick-
gistic regression model for trip frequency. The reason for choosing bi- shaws.
nomial regression is the variability of the data. The data did not reveal
the suitability of conventional regression or Poisson family models. 4.2.2. Mode replacement
Rather, the data supported the estimation of a binary logit model that Table 3 shows the distribution of modes that respondents would
could classify riders into two segments: riders making ‘more than 3 have used in the non-availability of electric rickshaws. The information
trips/week and those making ‘less than 3 trips/week. The model sug- is pertaining to the last trip on an electric rickshaw. It can be seen that
gests that females make more trips than males, probably an indication about 42% of electric rickshaw trips would have been replaced by auto-
of the lack of access to household vehicles to women. The occupation rickshaws.
status of an individual suggests that students use electric rickshaws A multinomial logistic regression model was estimated to explore

43
S. Priye and M. Manoj Case Studies on Transport Policy 8 (2020) 39–48

Table 4
Trip Rate Analysis.
Variable β t Prob.

Gender (Female) 0.633 2.15 0.031

Occupation
Service/Job/Business/Self-Employed ~
Student 2.747 8.22 0.000
Others −0.240 −0.73 0.466
Car ownership (yes) −1.313 −4.68 0.000
Constant −0.617 −3.01 0.003
Number of Observation = 388
Pseudo R2 = 0.2460
Log likelihood = -202.63372

Table 5
MNL model for Mode choice in absence of electric rickshaws (Base = Mini Bus).
Variable Auto-Rickshaw Pedal-Rickshaw Private Vehicle NMT Others

β t Prob. β t Prob. β t Prob. β t Prob. β t Prob.

Gender (Female) 2.037 4.68 0.000 2.400 4.09 0.000 2.327 4.30 0.000 −0.511 −0.86 0.387 2.044 3.37 0.001
Trip Purpose
Work/Office/Business ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Education −0.944 −2.06 0.040 0.121 0.12 0.905 −0.648 −0.87 0.382 1.381 1.51 0.132 0.226 0.24 0.808
Recreation/Social/Shopping/Others 0.012 0.03 0.979 1.257 1.41 0.158 0.166 0.25 0.801 2.072 2.40 0.016 −0.845 −1.28 0.202
Car ownership (yes) 1.046 1.98 0.048 1.840 2.94 0.003 2.579 4.34 0.000 2.400 4.07 0.000 1.853 2.88 0.004
Trip rate
Less than 3 trips/week ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
More than 3 trips/week 0.145 0.32 0.747 0.159 0.24 0.813 −0.637 −1.02 0.310 0.146 0.22 0.824 −2.847 −3.13 0.002
Trip length −0.297 −1.83 0.067 −2.135 −5.00 0.000 −0.192 −0.87 0.382 −0.958 −3.16 0.002 0.067 0.30 0.766
Constant 1.004 1.93 0.054 0.827 0.83 0.407 −1.126 −1.50 0.134 −0.562 −0.58 0.564 −0.586 −0.84 0.399
Number of Observation = 388
Pseudo R2 = 0.2063
Log likelihood = -494.07926

the choice of alternative mode a rider would have chosen, had electric in responses obtained from electric rickshaw users, regarding their
rickshaws were unavailable for the last trip. The model is summarized agreement with safety attributes, are shown in Fig. 3. Further, a sta-
in Table 5. An important limitation of the model is that it does not tistical reliability test using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was conducted
control the cost of travel by different modes. The research data do not on the responses related to the safety attributes to measure the internal
have cost information as some of the riders were unaware of the cost of consistency of the responses. The obtained Cronbach’s alpha coefficient
travel for alternative modes in the pilot survey and therefore, it was of 0.864 (George and Mallery, 2003) indicated that the questionnaire
excluded from the final questionnaire. In the table, the private vehicle could measure all the safety attributes in a meaningful way and there
category includes both car and MTW, and NMT comprises walking and were significant differences among the ratings (gathered from electric
bicycling. The alternative ‘others’ includes mode options such as pillion rickshaw users) of safety attributes.
riding2, shared ride, and official vehicles3. The table reveals that fe- Thereafter, in order to identify the most relevant safety issues re-
males are less likely to opt for walking and bicycling if electric rick- lated to electric rickshaws (based on the perceptions of the users), an
shaws were not available whereas they are more likely to choose auto- attempt was made to apply grey relation analysis (Julong, 1989) to rank
rickshaws and pedal-rickshaws. The influence of trip purpose implies order the Likert-scale data (related to given safety attributes) of the
that the respondents travelling for education-related activities (or stu- given 388 respondents. Grey relation analysis (GRA) comes under a
dents) are less likely to opt for auto-rickshaws in the absence of electric group of scientific analysis called multi-criteria decision-making (Roy
rickshaws - probably an indication of the impact of higher fare of auto- and Basu, 2019), which has been successfully implemented in various
rickshaws. Individuals from car-owning households are more likely to fields of scientific research, especially in the analysis of safety percep-
shift to private vehicles, as implied by the magnitude and significance tions (Hsu et al., 2010; Onyegiri and Oke, 2017). Since small sample
level of the estimate for car ownership variable. As trip length in- size may influence the reliability and precision of the outcome, an
creases, the respondents do not prefer pedal rickshaws and NMT, and a important advantage of GRA approach over traditional statistics ana-
unit change in trip length has a substantial impact on the choice of lysis is that it can analyze the ranking of small-sampled Likert-scale
pedal rickshaw than NMT. data very effectively (Hsu et al., 2010; Mazumdar, et al., 2010;
Sadhukhan et al., 2014; Kumar and Bhattacharyya, 2017). The ‘grey
relation grades’ of grey relation analysis rescale the values of different
4.3. Safety perception of electric rickshaw users
items, by taking the differences from the most favored (commonly, the
maximum of the scale) and the range of the scale, so smaller grades
The users’ opinions regarding safe travel in electric rickshaws were
reflect the lower importance assigned to the feature and values close to
also captured in the questionnaire survey. The survey participants were
1 indicate that respondents rated highly (close to the maximum of the
requested to express their perceptions regarding various safety-related
scale) the feature. GRA method has emerged as a reliable approach to
attributes (see Table 1) on a five-point Likert-type scale. The variations
analyse the small-sampled rating data and the calculations are simple
and straight forward (Cenglin, 2012; Kumar and Bhattacharyya, 2017).
2
taking a lift on someone’s motorized two-wheeler Besides, the grey relation analysis is distribution-free (Cenglin, 2012).
3
government/organizational vehicles meant to transport their employees Appendix A briefly summarizes the steps involved in GRA.

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S. Priye and M. Manoj Case Studies on Transport Policy 8 (2020) 39–48

Fig. 3. Variation in responses regarding the level of agreement.

Table 6
Ranking of Safety Attributes using GRA method.
Attributes (with codes) max Δi min Δi Grey Relation Grade (Γi) Rank*

Pavement condition (A1) 4 0 0.745 4

Light Body (A2) 2 0 0.862 1
Solid cover and Railing (A3) 4 0 0.789 3
Driver's Behaviour (A4) 4 0 0.639 10
Turning Points (A5) 4 0 0.665 7
Rear-end protection (A6) 4 0 0.730 5
Feels unsafe when fast-moving vehicle passes closely (A7) 4 0 0.683 6
Threat of snatching (A8) 4 0 0.659 8
Seat Belts (A9) 4 0 0.553 11
Unsafe for small children (A10) 4 0 0.839 2
Unsafe in a mixed traffic situation (A11) 4 0 0.656 9
Unsafe during night time (A12) 4 0 0.544 12
For reference data series (a0), the most favored responses were taken as ‘5′ Likert-scale value. From the columns (max Δi) and (min Δi) of the above table, Global Maximum Value
(Δmax) = 4 and Global Minimum Value (Δmin) = 0 were obtained respectively

*Higher Γi value means higher rank

4.3.1. Identification of critical safety attributes Table 7

The safety data obtained from the questionnaire survey was ana- Continuation of an electric rickshaw in its present form from the safety per-
lyzed using GRA method as explained in Appendix A. Table 6 shows the spective.
final ranking of the measures related to safety. Variable β t Prob.
To capture the most critical attributes related to safety, threshold
grey relation grade was estimated (Onyegiri and Oke, 2017). The esti- Gender (Female) −0.757 −2.16 0.031
Occupation
mated grade is 0.697 and utilizing this cut-off value, five major critical
Service/Job/Business/Self-Employed ~
attributes are identified and are shown in Table 6 (see codes A1, A2, A3, Student 0.200 0.54 0.587
A6 and A10). It may be observed that the most relevant safety-related Others 0.734 1.69 0.090
attributes are related to the structure of electric rickshaws. Electric Car ownership (yes) −0.473 −1.46 0.145
rickshaw users perceive the light body of electric rickshaw as the most A10 (1 = Agree/Strongly Agree) −1.537 −1.90 0.058
A1(1 = Agree/Strongly Agree) −2.669 −6.45 0.000
critical attribute related to safe travel. The second most crucial element is
A6(1 = Agree/Strongly Agree) −2.023 −4.65 0.000
the open structure of electric rickshaw (see Fig. 1). Due to this, often A3(1 = Agree/Strongly Agree) −2.274 −5.24 0.000
children and female passengers are more vulnerable to accidents. The Constant 6.734 6.44 0.000
improper height to breadth ratio makes the electric rickshaw more prone Number of Observation = 388
Pseudo R2 = 0.3579
to toppling on undulating surfaces. Users are also feared of rear-end
Log likelihood = − 155.1035
collision as the vehicle does not have any protection from the rear end.

electric rickshaw, as implied by the negative coefficient on gender. This

4.4. Continuation of the use of electric rickshaw in the future
is a policy-relevant finding and has wide implications for future plan-
ning and promotion of electric rickshaws. Interestingly, students will
Finally, a statistical model has been estimated to explore the factors
stay with electric rickshaw, all else being equal. As intuition suggests,
shaping the continuation of the use of electric rickshaw in the future. A
individuals of car-owning families are less likely to continue the use of
logistic regression model was estimated with the dependent variable as
electric rickshaws. Interestingly, all relevant safety-related attributes
“continue = 1.” Table 7 summarizes the model estimation results.
identified in Section 4.3.1 (Table 6) are critical to the continuation of
It can be concluded that females are less likely to continue the use of

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S. Priye and M. Manoj Case Studies on Transport Policy 8 (2020) 39–48

the use of electric rickshaws. Among all attributes, individuals are carrying big shopping bags. These observations point to the changes
profoundly worried about protection in the form of railings and solid required in vehicle designs for improving space and safety. From a
covers as well as the rigidity of the body of electric rickshaws. Those safety standpoint, there is an urgent need to devise standards to aug-
who opine that electric rickshaws require rear-end protection are also ment vehicle design. Finally, the study also indicates that electric
less likely to use the mode in the future. rickshaw could potentially replace the travel on common three-wheeled
auto-rickshaws, which run on conventional fuels. From a sustainability
5. Summary and conclusions viewpoint, this finding is promising, and the governments could de-
velop policies to shift three-wheeled auto-rickshaws to electric rickshaw
This research, first of its kind in the literature, explored the user so that the broad goals of urban transport sustainability are achieved.
profile and travel characteristics of electric rickshaw users in a pro-
posed smart city, Patna, in India. The research employed a primary 7. Future scope
questionnaire survey and data gathered from 388 users are utilized for
the exploratory analysis. The paper considered the descriptive analysis The research identifies certain avenues in the areas of electric
and statistical models to unravel the socio-demographics, travel char- rickshaws which could be strengthened. It would be interesting to study
acteristics and safety perceptions of electric rickshaw users. Main the travel patterns of electric rickshaw users in different categories of
findings of the study are: Indian cities for developing central-level policies to augment electric
rickshaw services. There is no present research or market study that
i. The proportion of males and females using electric rickshaw are shows inequality in accessing electric rickshaws in Patna. The present
nearly the same and individuals of age 25 years and above comprise study suggests that individuals of low-income households hold a low
a significant share of the riders. share in the sample of riders. This might be due to the higher cost of
ii. The electric rickshaw is primarily used as a main mode of travel and electric rickshaws in comparison to mini buses and cycles, which are
it caters to the shopping, and educational trips. common modes of the poor. This might be pointing to inequality in
iii. Students travel more frequently and are more likely to continue the accessing electric rickshaw. However, further research is needed to
use of electric rickshaws. understand inequalities related to electric rickshaw services. Further, a
iv. In the absence of electric rickshaws, a majority of the riders would stated preference study with including cost and other level-of-service
have used conventional fuel-based auto-rickshaws. measures would provide better insights into the mode preferences of
v. Safety-related attributes such as the need for solid covers and rail- electric rickshaw users. Moreover, the dataset of this case study in-
ings and rear end protection affect the continuation of the use of cludes only current electric rickshaw users. Understanding the opinions
electric rickshaw in the future. and perceptions of non-users/potential users and comparing that with
current users would provide more insights into planning and policy.
The research sheds light on the context of electric rickshaw use in a This is an avenue for further research. A modeling study of future use of
medium-sized city in India. From a sustainability point of view, it is a electric rickshaws using safety-related latent factors using a structural
good indication that electric rickshaw is replacing the majority of trips equations framework can also be conducted to better understand the
from common auto-rickshaws because, in most of the Indian cities, correlation between travel behavior, attitudes and socio-demographics.
auto-rickshaws often run on adulterated fuels (Gawande and Kaware, Further, there also remains scope for future research to investigate why
2013), and cause more harm to the environment. The results of the the riders would have considered auto-rickshaws as their alternative in
research provided essential inputs to the planners and policy makers to the absence of electric rickshaws. This association may be due to the
develop policies and standards to ensure effective use of electric rick- flexibility of auto-rickshaws (similar size and characteristics as of
shaws. electric rickshaws). Like electric rickshaw, an auto-rickshaw can offer
‘door-to-door’ service – taking a rider from ‘door’ of origin location and
6. Policy implications of the analysis drop at the ‘door’ of the destination. However, further research is
needed to understand the user behavior related to the choices.
From a broad viewpoint, the research provides valuable inputs to
transportation planning and policies aimed at the promotion of electric Appendix A. Grey relation analysis
rickshaws in Indian cities. As implied by the study, students make more
trips (in a week) on electric rickshaws and are more likely to continue The following are the important steps of GRA to identify the im-
the use of electric rickshaws. From a policy standpoint, these observa- portant factors (Hsu et al., 2010; Onyegiri and Oke, 2017):
tions are relevant, as students hold a significant share of (peak-period)
trip makers in many Indian cities and electric rickshaw use for school/ (1) Construct reference data series a0:
college travel could potentially reduce peak-period emissions. It is a
good indication that the “young generation” (which is the future) is a0 = (x 01, x 02 , ..., x 0r ) (a)
more willing to use cleaner technologies. The use of electric rickshaws where r denotes the number of respondents. The reference data
by students indicates an opportunity though it may be due to financial series, in general, consists of r values signifying the most favored re-
or other accessibility-related constraints. Since the younger is more sponses.
acquainted with green and sustainable transport mode, this correlation
is a promising finding for future sustainable transport planning. This (2) Construct comparison data series ai:
implies that we have to make arrangements for long-distance travel
(charging points at optimal locations, fast-charging batteries) within a ai = (x i1, xi2 , ...,x ir ) (b) where i = 1,…, p stands for the number of
city. Broadly, the enhancement of routes and operating schedules in scale items. There should be p comparison data series, and each com-
relation to school/college travel, etc. could be considered to promote parison data series comprise of r values.
and sustain the use of electric rickshaws among students. Females are
less likely to continue the use of the mode, as implied by the research. (3) Determine difference data series Δi:
The current structure of the vehicle may not be female-friendly – open
from all sides without doors and side rails. Females may not perceive i = (|x 01 x i1|, |x 02 x i2|, ...,|x 0r x ir |) (c)
such structure to be safe. Moreover, women undertake major house-
hold-related shopping, and the vehicle might not be conducive to (4) Obtain Global Maximum Value Δmax and Global Minimum Value

46
S. Priye and M. Manoj Case Studies on Transport Policy 8 (2020) 39–48

Δmin in the difference data series Δi: Government of Bihar, 2011. Urban Development and Housing Department, Government
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+
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i (f )
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