Gamification will have a significant impact on mobility, traffic, and transportation.
Games engage and involve people, and contestants solve problems and learn while playing. Apply the game principle to the field of transportation and the opportunity arises to work on hard-to-change habits such as the daily commute or texting while driving.
One of the very successful implementations is From5To4 – The Mobility Game, which reduced rush-hour solo car trips up to 20 percent at the participating companies.
From5To4 is a fun and simple game people play that involves recording their journeys to work. It’s a straightforward formula: for every work week, players need one day of commuting in some way other than a drive-alone car trip. The aim of the game is to encourage employees to travel to work by walking, cycling, using public transit, or by carsharing – all the while having fun competing against their friends and colleagues.
Andries van Vugt of Organiq and Sander Buningh of DTV Consultants told me, “After talking with many city executives and city planners, we realized that monetary incentives and increased awareness for alternatives only go so far.”
van Vugt added, “Businesses showed willingness to do their bit and were looking for a new approach.”
DTV Consultants is a leading research and consultancy firm in traffic and transportation in the Netherlands, worked with van Vugt’s team of behavior-change-through-gamification specialists to develop a framework for the game. The development was accelerated through co-funding by the Intelligent Energy Europe Program of the European Union and an award by the transportation industry in the form of the 2012 Intertraffic Innovation Award.
‘So, businesses and institutes of all kinds – from IT services and consultancy companies to government agencies, and from universities, research and development institutes to healthcare services companies are keen to play the game,” Buningh noted.
All the companies using the game have one thing in common: experience with accessibility problems and a dedication to making a positive difference in their local areas.
From5To4 suits an employer that is looking to offer employees a fun competition while also sending a serious message about its commitment to the health and well-being of its staff and the sustainability of its local environment.
“The outcome of playing the game varies per company, but they show a remarkable trend in which we are obviously very proud,” Buningh mentioned to me at the end of our conversation.
All companies, including Capgemini Netherlands, Rotterdam School of Management, and the City of Eindhoven, decreased their rush-hour solo-driving trips by 20 percent on average, increased bicycle usage by 10 percent, and reduced the carbon footprint of transport by 15 percent.
TNO – Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research got the most impressive results with the highlight of one ton of CO2 savings for every month it played the game with 200 players. These results ignited further interest in the game. From5To4 was recently introduced in the U.S. and is currently also available in the UK, Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria, Belgium, and Netherlands.
Based on this success story, I believe that gamification, if rightly applied and implemented, can and will have a significant impact in the field of transportation now and for years to come.