Empowering individuals to make environmentally sustainable and healthy transportation choices in mega-cities through a smartphone app.

Details

• Creators:
  Zheng, Yan ; Flanagan, Sara V. ; Morabia, Alfredo
• Corporate Creators:
  City University of New York
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Metropolitan areas
  • Smartphones
  • Attitudes
  • Mode choice
  • Travel behavior
  • Energy consumption
  • Pollutants
  • Environmental impacts
• Publication/ Report Number:
  49997-36-24
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  University Transportation Research Center
• Abstract:
  A paradox of industrialized society is the overreliance on unsustainable fossil fuel energy for transportation and insufficient use of sustainable ; bodily energy for more physically active modes of transport. Different modes of transportation require varying levels of physical activity, with cars ; being the most sedentary, followed by public transportation, and active transportation (walking and biking). Preference (individual and societal) ; for sedentary travel modes such as car driving over available physically active travel modes has contributed to air pollution and the epidemic of ; obesity. Low-carbon transport systems have the potential to improve the health of citizens and to mitigate climate change simultaneously. ; Among the potential solutions for low-carbon transport systems, innovations in technology and demand reduction have received much attention, ; with less consideration toward behavioral options that are also critical to a decarbonized transport sector. ; Currently, behavioral change options are rarely considered in the decision-making process of transportation projects because their efficacy is ; largely unknown. An example of behavioral option for decarbonizing transport is a non-price-based policy to trigger individual behavioral change ; using “nudges”, defined as any aspect of a choice set that alters behavior without foreclosing alternatives or significantly changing economic ; incentives. The intervention should be easy and cheap to implement; for example, a nudge could disclose information. Evidence has emerged ; that the American public has a knowledge perception bias for energy consumption and efficiency that tend to underestimates carbon emission of ; day-to-day activities. This study investigates whether insufficient and inaccurate perceptions of carbon emission and bodily energy expenditure ; in day-to-day travel may be barriers for adopting more physically active and environmentally sustainable travel modes. ; We conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess impacts of a behavioral nudge intervention consisted of a new smartphone app onTrac. ; The app was developed to report personalized knowledge of carbon emission and calories burned associated with user specified travel modes, ; with walking and bicycling automatically detected through accelerometer. Undergraduate students of Queens College, City University of New ; York were recruited to participate in baseline surveys (N=85) designed to evaluate factors that may influence their travel mode preferences and ; behavior. Although both car and public transit commuters are found to be pro-environment, they are significantly different in that public transit ; commuters displayed less affection towards driving and were more comfortable using public transit (attitude factors), were more encouraged by ; their families to use public transit and had more friends who use public transit (norm factors). Transit commuters also had less situational ; constraints such as owning an automobile for work and managing their schedule than car commuters. Repeat surveys following a three week ; trial of the onTrac app found significant increases in self-reported consideration for the environmental impact of transportation choice among ; students who used the app (N=24), compared to the control group (N=26) who did not. Significantly more favorable attitudes towards carpooling ; post-trial were noted only among the car drivers (N=12) in the app group. Further studies, with larger sample sizes and an improved app that ; can detect all travel modes automatically using the smartphone's built in sensors are warranted to explore how this elevated environmental ; cognition may interact with attitude and situational factors, perhaps moderated by perceived control, to influence actual travel choice behavior
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/29480/dot_29480_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 464.79 KB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers ; US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:5abe8b4d23b3b5ee77e810f8e9325e46a3e95cc7416305e4480c559d44b8f34b