Promoting sustainable travel behaviour through the use of smartphone applications: A review and development of a conceptual model

Abstract

The negative effects of transport in terms of pollution, congestion and climate change has urged the need for higher shares of cleaner and more efficient modes of transport, especially in urban settings. While new technology can solve some of these issues, behaviour changes has also been identified as an important factor to achieve a modal shift from cars to walking, cycling or public transport. This study investigates how ICT has been used to influence behaviour change and synthesizes key aspects into a conceptual model for creating a behaviour change support system (BCSS) for smartphone applications. A literature review concerning behaviour change and ICT in the fields of transport, health, energy and climate was conducted to gather empirical evidence which forms the foundation of the conceptual model. The empirical findings were tested and verified against a theoretical framework consisted of The Transtheoretical Model, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Diffusion of Innovations and the concept of Gamification. The results suggest that customization to the user, relevant and contextualised information and feedback, commitment, and appealing design are important aspects when influencing users to behaviour change through smartphone applications. The conceptual model provides further knowledge of key aspects to consider when developing persuasive tools that aims to encourage more sustainable modes of transport.

Cyclists’ Multiple Environmental Urban Exposures—Comparing Subjective and Objective Measurements

“…In this context, the benefits of a combination of active and passive smart sensing for personal exposure assessments have so far been underestimated and should receive higher priorities in order to support future healthy urban planning [53,54]. The rapid development of mobile smart technologies and more individualized exposure data will receive greater attention in environmental science to improve human health and promote sustainable travel behavior [55][56][57]. The special value lies in the combination of health and spatio-temporal data to assess the matter of place.…”

Evaluating a Mobility Service Application for Business Travel: Lessons Learnt from a Demonstration Project

“…Earlier research has stressed the need to adjust interventions to the need of the user and to contextualise content to make it more relevant to the user [56][57][58]. While it often is more practical to develop one system for all, previous research has stressed the need to adapt systems for users with diverging needs and expectations in order to increase the uptake of interventions for sustainable mobility [14]. Some respondents in this study felt that the current booking system has an advantage in that it offers personalised service, which includes not only the trip itself but also the booking of overnight stays.…”

“…Such measures aim to motivate individuals to voluntarily change their modes of transport to more sustainable ones [12] and have been implemented in several countries including Sweden [13]. Recently, soft measures have been studied in combination with information and communication technologies (ICT) to further promote a shift away from private car use [14,15]. While many studies focus on commuting trips [16], previous research has not sufficiently explored the role of business travel in the transition to a more sustainable transport system.…”

The influence of positive interventions on cycling

“…Several studies are optimistic about gamification and its potential to extend the commitment of the user ( e.g. (Andersson, Winslott Hiselius, & Adell, 2018;Bowden & Hellen, 2019;), however there is a lack of longitudinal study designs. Thus, more research is needed to discover the gamification effect on app involvement and commitment, and its impact on behaviour change, especially under a long term study period.…”

“…For example, most of VBTC projects have run less than one year, and the current ICT services (apps) based studies have only run for less than two months. Several studies are optimistic about gamification and its potential to extend the commitment of the user ( (Andersson et al, 2018;Baranowski & Frankel, 2012;Berger & Platzer, 2015;Bowden & Hellen, 2019;Castellanos, 2016;Poslad et al, 2015)). This thesis focuses on the effects of positive interventions in the long term.…”