Developing an application for smartphones which will help city residents to choose the most eco-friendly modes of transport is targeted at the research project PEACOX (Usable Persuasive Trip Advisor for Reducing CO2-consumption), in which the Information Systems Management Unit of the University Research Institute of Communication and Computer Systems participates.
The project combines methods for automatically determining users' means of transport and travel purpose, dynamic profiling and methods for extracting user preferences for personalized suggestions of ecological means of transport and routes, computational models for pollutant emission estimation, as well as strategic presentationof information in a way that prompts users to choose ecological means of transport and change their behavior in the long term.
The Greek team, with scientific coordinator Professor NTUA Grigoris Mentza and the research team leader, Dr. Efthimios Botsos, designed and implemented algorithms that choose and present users with ecological routes according to their preferences and according to their habits. The proposed routes can combine more than one means of transport.
The project involves eight organizations from six countries (Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Greece) among which are universities and research centers (ETHZ – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, TCD – Trinity College Dublin, CURE – Center for Usability Research and Engineering), supply companies software πλοήγησης (TOMTOM International Bv, Fluidtime Data Services GmbH, TMX – Telematix Software as) and public organizations (ITS Vienna Region). It is co-financed by the EU. through the '7th Framework Programme' and lasts three years.
The first version of the app is already available and was evaluated by 60 Viennese residents in the summer of 2013. Results were evaluated as encouraging, as users were happy with its functionality, while the personalized suggestions of alternative and ecological routes were also positively evaluated. In addition, the analysis of the results showed that the ecological awareness of the participants increased with the use of the application, while in some cases there was also a change in behavior such as a reduction in the use of the car with a simultaneous increase in travel by means of public transport.
Future implementation could also be used in Greek cities with air pollution and increased traffic problems such as Athens and Thessaloniki.
Source: naftemporiki.gr
Images: project-peacox.eu
