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Towards sustainable mobility behavior: research challenges for location-aware information and communication technology

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Abstract

Private transport accounts for a large amount of total CO2 emissions, thus significantly contributing to global warming. Tools that actively support people in engaging in a more sustainable life-style without restricting their mobility are urgently needed. How can location-aware information and communication technology (ICT) enable novel interactive and participatory approaches that help people in becoming more sustainable? In this survey paper, we discuss the different aspects of this challenge from a technological and cognitive engineering perspective, based on an overview of the main information processes that may influence mobility behavior. We review the state-of-the-art of research with respect to various ways of influencing mobility behavior (e.g., through providing real-time, user-specific, and location-based feedback) and suggest a corresponding research agenda. We conclude that future research has to focus on reflecting individual goals in providing personal feedback and recommendations that take into account different motivational stages. In addition, a long-term and large-scale empirical evaluation of such tools is necessary.

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Notes

  1. Lifestyles of health and sustainability

  2. www.merriam-webster.com

  3. “Copenhagen accord”. U.N. framework convention on climate change. United Nations. 18 December 2009.

  4. Mobile sensing platforms

  5. cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_M7

  6. Unsupervised learning, e.g. clustering, does not require training data, but leaves open what kind of goal was detected in a set of activities.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research (SCCER) Efficient Technologies and Systems for Mobility and the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI). Additional support is acknowledged from the the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) under the National Research Program NRP71 “Managing Energy Consumptions”.

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  1. ETH Zürich, Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation, Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5, 8093, Zürich, Switzerland

    Paul Weiser, Simon Scheider, Dominik Bucher, Peter Kiefer & Martin Raubal

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  1. Paul Weiser
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Weiser, P., Scheider, S., Bucher, D. et al. Towards sustainable mobility behavior: research challenges for location-aware information and communication technology. Geoinformatica 20, 213–239 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10707-015-0242-x

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