1. Introduction
In Metro Manila, Philippines, public transport accounts for approximately 49 percent. Several public transports such as jeepneys, buses, and other utility vehicles account for most land transportation trips, while private modes and walking account for approximately 20 percent and 30 percent [
1,
2,
3]. Due to COVID-19’s limitations imposed on public transportation and the resultant reduction in capacity, many non-essential trips were either avoided or suspended. Even for long-distance travel, walking or cycling was frequently the only option for traveling. Moreover, healthcare professionals who had to travel interminable distances and hours to work were greatly affected [
4]. Indeed, the high risk of exposure to the virus on public transit has led to a substantial decline in its use [
5,
6], particularly among those without access to private vehicles, which accounts for 88.5 percent of all households [
2].
Even with the relaxation in public transportation, the worry of the “risk of infection” has affected people’s choice of transportation mode. Passengers regard public transportation as unsafe and a potential source of infection, which negatively impacts the transportation system [
7]. Consequently, it ushered in a new mobility paradigm and revolutionized how people travel, work, and shop. Moreover, it switched attention to micro-mobility transportation [
8]. Micro-mobility generally refers to shorter-distance travel encompassing small, lightweight vehicles (bicycles, electric bikes (e-bikes), e-scooters, and mopeds) designed for personal transport. They are primarily two-wheelers, either powered or manually operated. Potential advantages include a lower carbon footprint, less traffic congestion [
9], and a workable solution to the first-last mile problems [
10].
Micro-mobility has caused substantial changes in mobility patterns in many places [
11], along with complicated and dynamic adjustments in commuting and mode of transportation selection habits. As a result, policymakers are pushed to accommodate the said development. On the other hand, the changes in travel behavior gradually facilitate an environmentally beneficial transportation system. The utilization may result in healthier and more sustainable cities, with more excellent room for active modes of transportation [
12], making walking, scooting, and cycling popular [
13]. Moreover, recent studies show changes in travel behaviors as a result of COVID-19, including how people tend to shift from shared travel modes to individual ones as a precautionary measure, even in developing countries [
14,
15,
16,
17]. However, adopting or continuing the use of these vehicles relies on the individual’s perception of them. To successfully encourage its use, it is necessary to further investigate this development to appreciate its benefits in terms of environmental concerns and context-specific factors in an individual’s decision-making process.
Despite several papers published on adopting micro-mobility vehicles (MMV) in different countries, there is limited quantifiable evidence that studies the behavioral intention behind its usage in the Philippines, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The research on consumers’ preferences toward the usage intention of MMV in the future is underdeveloped. Thus, it is necessary to measure users’ perceived behavior toward MMV, the benefits associated with these modes of transportation, and whether the pandemic affected their behavioral intention.
This study aims to determine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our future intention to use micro-mobility, particularly e-scooters/bikes, and to explore how hedonic and environmental motivations influence the decision-making process of its adoption. A Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was utilized by extending the COVID-19 effects, including environmental consciousness, into the model. Moreover, the current research investigates e-scooters used primarily for hedonistic activities connected to recreation and leisure [
18].
The current study might contribute to numerous theoretical and practical implications. First, it contributes to understanding the relationship between environmental and hedonic motivation in deploying MMV or other green transport innovations. Although several scholars have researched hedonic motivation, attitudes and intentions have received greater attention than actual behavior [
19,
20,
21,
22]. Rezvani et al. [
23] state that embracing new transportation options requires emotional acceptance and rational consideration. Second, this research contributes to identifying the impact of consumer identity and personal traits on innovative quality attributes. Moreover, this paper offers insight into how far consumers who identify as environmentally conscious may see the benefits of green transportation solutions.
5. Discussion
In the wake of the pandemic, it is increasingly crucial to understand people’s inclination to switch to micro-mobility, and the strategies to increase their acceptance. This study aimed to assess the psychosocial factors influencing the intention to use e-scooters/bikes by integrating COVID-19′s effects on TPB. Consequently, this paper examined how hedonic and environmental motivations affect people’s decision to use e-scooters/bikes in the future.
The proposed framework’s endogenous variable obtained an explanatory power of 0.741. It means that the five latent constructs—perceived behavioral control, social norms, attitude, hedonic, and environmental motivations—accounting for 23.9%, 19.1%, 42.9%, 25%, and 37.8%, respectively, can explain 74.1% of the variance of intention or likelihood to use e-scooters/bikes. Furthermore,
Table 5 indicates that while participants perceived e-scooters/bikes as enjoyable and fun, this did not seem to influence their intention to use e-scooters/bikes, which is inconsistent with the study of Kopplin et al. (2021) [
24].
Despite the fact that attitude and usage intention were not correlated, COVID-19 appeared to be related to people’s attitude toward the use of e-scooters and bikes (H5: β = 0.428,
p = 0.001). It significantly and positively influenced both perceived behavioral control and subjective norms (H6: β = 0.437,
p = 0.001). This indicates that COVID-19 increased people’s knowledge of environmental problems and the negative effects of motorized vehicles, which led to a favorable perception of e-scooters and e-bikes. This result supports a study from Germany which found that attitudes changed before and after the initiation of COVID-19 [
56]. Similarly, various research shows that those who switched from using motorized vehicles to cycling during the pandemic experienced the advantages of riding [
57]. According to a different study, PBC significantly influenced the number of participants who chose cycling as their mode of active transportation.
Findings from
Table 6 also reveal that environmental motivations drive positive emotions brought about by the perceived usage of e-scooters/bikes (H12: β = 0.326,
p < 0.001), indicating that respondents consider the environment when choosing a method of transportation. Perhaps one of the main reasons to use e-scooters/bikes is the environmental benefits [
58]. Another latent variable, pro-environmental identity, also significantly affects environmental motivation (H10: β = 0.615,
p = 0.021), as shown by other behaviors such as the continued usage of e-bikes [
33] and the adoption of alternative fuels [
38]. This result also verifies prior studies indicating that the higher a person’s degree of environmental concern, the greater the possibility that they will perceive the environmental advantages of the items they use. Customers also find it easy to justify their use of or intention to use the product in terms of the eco-friendliness of e-scooters based on their green identity.
Contrary to the conclusions of related studies [
31,
33], ENV did not significantly influence consumers’ intention to use e-scooters or e-bikes after the pandemic (see
Table 7, indirect effects). It may be attributed to the strong effects of COVID-19, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Likewise, hedonic motivations, assessed through positive emotions, have a weak mathematical relationship with intention to use, yet failed to demonstrate a statistically good correlation. Thus, perceiving e-scooters/bikes as entertaining and fun is not substantial enough to drive their decision to use the products.
Table 7 shows that SN (β = 0.147,
p < 0.001) and PBC (β = 0.145,
p < 0.001) partially mediate the effect of COV on BI. Nevertheless, the effect is minimal compared to COV’s direct influence on BI. Surprisingly, COVID-19 seemed to have the most influence compared to all the factors that affect people’s usage intentions for e-scooters and e-bikes, followed by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. This finding implies that the pandemic and subjective norms had a more significant behavioral influence than desired on people’s intention to ride bicycles or e-scooters in the future. The outcome is also consistent with recent research showing that COVID-19 will probably affect long-term travel behaviors, leading to a beneficial shift toward more environmentally friendly means of transportation, such as walking and e-scooters [
8,
59]. It also explains why views toward using two-wheeled vehicles after the pandemic ended did not correlate with using e-scooters or e-bikes.
The factors impacting views toward MMV use were another noteworthy assumption from the results. Through POS, green identity and ENV indirectly positively impacted attitudes. This indicates that consumers use the cognitive-environmental approach rather than only relying on hedonic effects to justify their view of e-scooters and e-bikes by understanding how these modes affect the environment. This research makes a significant theoretical contribution by explaining how an individual’s unique innovativeness affects their use of green transportation. The results show that even though most respondents believe they are in the early majority, this does not necessarily indicate a positive relationship with the intention to use. The adoption of green products cannot be entirely predicted by a person’s innovativeness, contrary to suggestion [
41].
5.1. Practical Implications
The research presented in this paper may have a practical application in helping green transportation providers improve their marketing plans and boost demand for e-scooters and e-bikes after COVID-19. Policymakers may use this pandemic as a motivation to persuade people to consider using an alternative form of transportation if they can use the positive correlation between COVID-19 and usage intention. Additionally, as COVID-19 successfully raised public awareness of environmental issues, climate change, and the negative effects of motorized vehicles, promotion strategies that highlight the environmentally friendly features of e-scooters and e-bikes may be suggested. Compared to other means of transportation, e-scooter and e-bike manufacturers might include features on their products that alert users to their carbon footprint.
Another important aspect that strongly affected the intention to use e-scooters and e-bikes was social norms. Therefore, by investing in publicity to boost the favorable image of e-scooters/bikes through commercials in which public personalities utilize the product, policymakers and businesses might concentrate on boosting social acceptance. Additionally, given that the factor loadings relating to the first-last mile difficulty and time-constrained activities received high values, the government may support a work-to-bike policy or offer a suitable intermodal transit policy. On the other hand, more study is needed to address the surprising association between the attitude and impact of hedonic and environmental motives on usage intention. With these findings, a provision for segregated bike lanes may improve the public’s perception of the safety of e-scooters and bikes. Finally, the results might be useful to government agencies and private companies regarding the feasibility to provide the availability of public e-scooter services in the Philippines.
5.2. Limitations
Despite the contribution of this study, several limitations need to be addressed—primarily the limitations of the data employed in the study. First, the sample size used in this research is relatively small and random, which may lead to biases in social desirability, and thus should not be expected to be representative of the demographics in socio-economic terms. Second, the sampling was conducted in the Philippines. As such, results may be applicable in other areas with different transportation systems or cultural contexts. Lastly, this paper solely focuses on the intention to use e-scooters/bikes, and therefore may entail a gap between behavior-actual use. In addition, e-scooters and bikes are two different transportations. These limitations provide opportunities for future research, especially the multi-group analysis. Moreover, although this paper proves substantial in using the TPB framework, other variables, i.e., perceived risks, may also be incorporated [
60]. Consequently, due to the failed results of accumulating knowledge on the decision-making involved in green innovations, future research may conduct separate analyses on the matter.