DriveStats: a Mobile Platform to Frame Effective Sustainable Driving Displays

TL;DR

DriveStats is a mobile platform that tracks driving behavior and displays sustainability metrics, demonstrating increased utility and self-reported behavior change over a 10-day study with North American users.

Contribution

It introduces a reusable mobile library and app for monitoring trips and displaying sustainability information, supporting research on mobile transportation behaviors.

Findings

Increased utility of emissions information over time

Participants reported behavior change related to sustainability

App effectively engaged users in a 10-day diary study

Abstract

Phone applications to track vehicle information have become more common place, providing insights into fuel consumption, vehicle status, and sustainable driving behaviorsHowever, to test what resonates with drivers without deep vehicle integration requires a proper research instrument. We built DriveStats: a reusable library (and encompassing an mobile app) to monitor driving trips and display related information. By providing estimated cost/emission reductions in a goal directed framework, we demonstrate how information utility can increase over the course of a 10 day diary study with a group of North American participants. Participants were initially interested in monetary savings reported increased utility for emissions-related information with increased app usage and resulted in self-reported sustainable behavior change. The DriveStats package can be used as a research probe for a plurality of mobility studies (driving, cycling, walking, etc.) for supporting mobile transportation research.