Figure 1. Graphical Interface of the CIBER-CARs: the Welcome Screen

1. Centre for Spatial Analysis School of Geography & Geology McMaster University Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1 The Hamilton Area Automobile Survey (CIBER-CARs) Dimitris Potoglou, M.Sc., Ph.D. Candidate (potogld@mcmaster.ca) Pavlos S. Kanaroglou, Professor, Canada Research Chair in Spatial Analysis Figure 1. Graphical Interface of the CIBER-CARs: the Welcome Screen Figure 3. Example of a choice exercise ALTERNATIVE FUELLED VEHICLE DEMAND IN HAMILTON CMA: THE CIBER-CARS SURVEY • THE CIBER – CARs Survey (cont’d) • The CIBER-CARs survey consists of two stages. • STAGE 1: Retrospective Data Collection (Revealed Preferences) • This stage is of a retrospective nature on households' type and vintage of vehicles bought, sold and/or disposed during a maximum time-horizon of eight years (1997-2005). Figure 2 shows a data model of the information collected in the first stage. • The last step of this stage asks respondents about their future plans to purchase a vehicle and its specific characteristics such as anticipated annual usage rate, the amount of money they would spend to purchase it and the vehicle class. • STAGE 2: Prospective Vehicle Technology Type Choice (Stated Choices) • The second stage is a stated choices experiment on future vehicle purchases. Vehicle choice alternatives are labelled based on the fuel type and class of the vehicle. The fuel type label consists of a conventional gasoline, a hybrid-electric and an alternative fuel vehicle. Also, the vehicle class label includes subcompact, compact, medium and large size car, SUV, pick-up truck and van. Each respondent completes eight exercises each involving the choice of one out of three fuel type options (Figure 3). The conventional gasoline vehicle is the base alternative and it is customized per respondent based on information elicited in the first stage of the survey. The characteristics of the conventional vehicle remain the same throughout the eight exercises. BACKGROUND By ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in 2002, Canada is aiming at reducing significantly its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Target sectors in achieving this goal are transportation, energy, industry, forestry and agriculture. Of these, the transportation sector is the largest source of GHG emissions contributing about one quarter of Canada’s total emissions. Personal vehicles generate eighty percent of these emissions, suggesting that alternative vehicle technologies could be a promising solution to emission reduction. Analysis of the role of vehicle technology in fulfilling sustainability targets, however, requires estimates of future vehicle demand. Such estimates would be significant information to local and regional governments for introducing incentives and policy measures towards a considerable market penetration of cleaner vehicle technologies. Contemporary approaches in this field require collection of data regarding vehicle transactions and type choices at the household level. To date, the majority of the studies have been US-based with a focus at the state (Adler et al. 2003;Bunch et al., 1993) or national level (Dagsvik et al., 2002). • OBJECTIVES • To advance the current stage of knowledge dealing with the modelling of automobile demand and examine the role of space in this process. • To determine the importance of vehicle attributes and household characteristics that influence preferences for alternative vehicle technologies. • To device a behavioural framework of the household vehicle-acquisition and vehicle type-choice processes, and • To evaluate market penetration and environmental benefits of cleaner vehicle technologies at the urban level. • REFERENCES • Adler, T., Wargelin, L., Kostyniuk, L. P., Kavalec, C. and Occhiuzzo, G. (2003) Incentives for Alternative Fuel Vehicles: A large-scale stated preference experiment. 10th International Conference on Travel Behaviour Research, Lucerne, Switzerland. • Bunch, D. S., Bradley, M., Golob, T. F., Kitamura, R. and Occhizzo, G. P. (1993) Demand for clean-fuel vehicles in California: A discrete choice stated preference survey. Transportation Research A,27, 237-253. • Dagsvik, J. K., Wennemo, T., Wetterwald, D. G. and Aaberge, R. (2002) Potential demand for alternative fuel vehicles. Transportation Research B,36, 361-384. Figure 2. Data model of the CIBER_CARs Survey THE CIBER – CARs Survey The Choice Internet-Based Experiment for Research on Cars (CIBER-CARs) is a self-administered online internet-survey developed for data collection on household automobiles in the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) of Hamilton (Figure 1). Through this data collection effort, we aim at developing a better understanding on household behaviour regarding vehicle transactions and type-choice in both a retrospective and prospective context. For this purpose, this survey is designed to collect both revealed preferences and stated choices data.