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Challenged to Bike: Assessing the Potential Impact of Gamified Cycling Initiatives

  • January 2016
  • Conference: Transportation Research Board (TRB) 95th Annual Meeting 2016
  • At: Washington D.C.
Authors:
Matthias Wunsch at TU Wien
Matthias Wunsch
Alexandra Millonig at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Alexandra Millonig
Stefan Seer at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Stefan Seer
Katja Schechtner
Katja Schechtner
Katja Schechtner
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Abstract and Figures

Cycling is promoted by a variety of initiatives and events all around the world. Given the popularity of such campaigns, there is surprisingly limited literature assessing their effectiveness and investigating the involved social processes. This paper presents findings from two case studies of gamified biking initiatives which have been evaluated using both quantitative-statistical and qualitative-interpretative methods: (1) a small-scale research experiment (“Frequent Biking Challenge”) and (2) an annual national biking campaign (“Bike to Work”). The two case studies provide insights into their general effects, on changes for different groups of bikers, the effectiveness of different elements of the interventions, and the methodological requirements for evaluating short and long-term impacts of campaigns aiming at increasing biking in cities. Both initiatives successfully encouraged people to bike more in the short run, 25% in the experimental group and 36% participating in the campaign increased their amount of biking during the intervention period. However, effects vary for different groups of bikers and only the “Bike to Work” campaign shows a lasting effect with 26% of those participating in previous years continuing to bike more. The results show that in order to induce long-term behavior changes, gamified biking initiatives have to be embedded into everyday life, enable social interactions and provide mutual encouragement.
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Wunsch et al - 2016 - Challenged to Bike
Data
April 2016
Matthias Wunsch · Alexandra Millonig · Stefan Seer · Katja Schechtner · Ryan C.C. Chin
... Offering challenges and setting goals that incentivise the user to show an intended behaviour in a self-competitive context through a comparison of the present and a desirable future situation. Related Papers: [3,9,11,13,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] 29% Self-monitoring and Feedback ...
... Applying computing technology to eliminate the tedium of tracking performance or status helps people to achieve predetermined goals or outcomes. Related Papers: [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]20 Table 3 presents the 23 persuasive systems we identified in the domain of sustainable mobility. The table provides information regarding the type of the system (whether it is a web or mobile app or both) as well as the persuasive strategies which have been implemented. ...
... Behavioural Change 62.9% [6,8,10,[12][13][14]16,[20][21][22][23][24][25]28,29,31,33,41] Attitude Change 11% [6,9,10] System/approach evaluation only (usability, acceptance, functionalities, perceived impact on behavioural change) 48.6% [7][8][9]11,18,19,[28][29][30][31]36,40,42,45] 1 Note that the sum of the percentages provided in the table does not add up to 100 as there are studies that report more than one evaluation targets (i.e., studies that report results on users' behavioral change as well as results on the evaluation of the system/approach used in the study). ...
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