The Effect of Incentives to Promote Cycling: a Mobility Living Lab

As part of the Horizon 2020 project EMPOWER, this paper presents results from a case study on the impact of positive incentives on cycling behavior for around 70 participants in the Twente region of the Netherlands. This was done by using the SMART app in a real-world living lab environment. The SMART app uses challenges with rewards, feedback, and message functions to promote cycling. In this particular case, participants were challenged to cycle at least 10 times along a newly paved cycling road and get rewarded upon completion of the challenge. A post-challenge survey was sent through the app to evaluate participants’ behavior. The authors found that the campaign resulted in new bike trips, on the newly paved road, made by users who completed the challenge, even after the campaign had ended. According to the survey, 44% of participants responded that their behavior had changed due to the campaign, and that they would keep on cycling more often after the campaign. Most users who did not complete the challenge said they do not need to use this road, but 20% of them indicated that they would cycle more if they got challenges and rewards more suited to their personal situation. This implies that challenges are more effective when they are customized based on individuals’ historical travel patterns.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABJ95 Standing Committee on Visualization in Transportation.
• Authors:
  • Huang, Bingyuan
  • Thomas, Tom
  • Groenewolt, Benjamin
  • Fioreze, Tiago
  • van Berkum, Eric
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 13p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycling; Bikeways; Incentives
• Identifier Terms: SMART (Software)
• Geographic Terms: Twente (Netherlands : Province)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01664297
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-00481
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 27 2018 11:15AM