OffRoads is a persuasive website aimed at showing users that changing from driving a car to using mass transit for a regular commute can make a significant positive impact on the global world as a whole and the user’s own personal life. It will demonstrate, using personal data, how much of an effect their single change can make in a year’s time to such environmental factors as carbon dioxide emissions and crude oil savings. They will have the opportunity to see how their lives can be further enriched by the side effects of such a change through increased physical activity and free time and even monetary savings. The website’s goals will be accomplished through a simple, sleekly designed, fun user interface. The user will be presented with related facts to support the validity of the statements made regarding the global effects of their personal choices. The website will also provide a blog interface for the purpose of social influence from a support network of local commuters who were previously in similar situations. These will be motivational success stories. A limited version of this application will also be implemented for use on a mobile device.
The intention is to build this application for the University of Maryland community which includes the entire Washington D.C. area. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority website1 will be the source for public transportation solutions. It has a simple interface for users to select a location and destination and it will provide the cost associated for the time of day for the commute and the necessary details. However, users who do not reside in this geographical area can still learn from the motivational information and can obtain customized calculations if they can enter in their mass transit alternative solution costs (gleaned from their own local source).
While some of the functionality this website will provide has been offered by various other websites, OffRoads will pull together information to provide a customized yet comprehensive and simple view of the effect that a single person can have. A website that most closely matches the functionality of the calculator portion of OffRoads is the Ride Share Online website2 . It provides a similar calculator type interface for the user to enter their daily commute information but its intention is to compare their current annual costs versus the costs of carpooling or vanpooling3 . Another website that promotes carpooling is “Commute Solutions”4. This website has a very detailed cost accounting of how much it costs to operate a car. It breaks it down into the number of cents per mile for all costs associated with car ownership.
A portion of the Environmental Protection Agency’s website5 provides a similar service with its “Personal Green House Gas Calculator”6. This calculator is more extensive, as it calculates a person’s green house emissions in all aspects of their lives, including home use. OffRoads focuses only on the effects of transportation costs, specifically the regular work commute. This website was of interest both for its similarity in user interface to what we propose and its data regarding carbon dioxide emissions.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) website7 provides a matrix of per mile costs of operating a car based on its type8 that was very useful in our research. It categorizes vehicles into five types: small, medium, or large sedan, four wheel drive sport utility vehicles, and minivans. Correlations are provided between these categories and specific models of automobiles to facilitate best categorization of the user’s specific car. For more exact approximations specific to buying a new car for any given make, model, and year see the Edmund’s website9 for their “True Cost to Own”10 calculations . AAA also provides the per mile cost of operating each type of car for three different pre-defined levels of driving: 10, 15, or 20 thousand miles per year. The annual national average is 15,000 miles per year8 (another website11 uses the number 12,000). The local averages could be higher. The national average round trip work commute is 32 miles12. Maryland state has one of the longest commute times of any other state, averaging one hour12. The current average annual costs of operating a car are $79678. This includes all costs such as insurance, routine maintenance, license and registration costs, depreciation costs, etc. The composite national average per mile is 52.2 cents8. These figures are used for the default values for the user’s costs when the user does not enter his specific profile.
OffRoads has a different approach than any of these websites. It does share a calculator-like interface with many of them. However, none of these are focusing on eliminating the everyday work commute via car. None of them offer a social network for support. Most are broader in scope or just have a different motivation. The authors feel that the chosen area is where the most return can be realized. The hope is that showing how simple it is to do, what the real benefits are, having reputable facts to substantiate the argument, and other people who have made the switch provide support will be persuasive enough to accomplish the goal.
OffRoads as Persuasive Technology
In his book “Persuasive Technology”, B. J. Fogg defines captology as the study of computers as persuasive technology13. This website is a very suitable model for this study. Fogg
details the “Functional Triad” of roles13 that computers play in persuasion. We can describe the methods by which this website will achieve its goals in terms of his triad: computers as tools, medium, and social actor.13
OffRoads as Tool
As a tool, there are several ways that the website will persuade users to change. The primary method would be by calculating motivational data13 such as the annual number of barrels of crude oil saved, calories burned by walking to the local public transportation facility, dollars saved, amount of reduced carbon dioxide emissions or the increased free time or calories burned. This also improves persuasion through tailoring13 as all of this information is customized to the users current commute habits compared to the proposed commute method.
A secondary method would be simplification of the desired behavior13. Users will have an easy interface to help them find the alternative mode of public transportation. During the initial phase of development of this application, this portion of the website would rely on the user interface of pre-existing local websites (WMATA), but later releases would standardize and further simplify the interaction by interfacing (if it existed) through an API. This would make this application more difficult to port to other localities, so the focus of this application still remains the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area but most other parts of this application are not specific to a location.
OffRoads as Medium
In its role as medium, OffRoads will show users the cause-and-effect13 of their actions through the calculations discussed above. They will see that they can be responsible for a large volume of crude oil being conserved and they can infer from that the political and environmental impact. They will see that they can reduce pollution and will be able to quantify these potential results. But they will also be able to see the effect this change will have on their daily life through increased exercise and free time. This simulation of the effect on everyday routines helps motivate behavior change13.
It will also show cause and effect and help a user overcome the feeling many people have that they alone can not make a difference by showing the impact of the combined efforts of a group. They will be presented with facts that will encourage them that their single behavioral changes will make a significant difference when multiplied by a small realistically sized population. For example,
“If only .5% of the total U.S. population stopped driving their cars to work,
the US could totally eliminate dependence on Kuwaiti oil.”
A fact like this would show that it would not require a large percentage of the American population to make a change similar to what they are considering to make a significant impact. When users observe the correlation between cause and effect, they are more likely to be persuaded
13.
The website will also present statements of related facts that demonstrate the severity and importance of the problem. These are aimed at persuading users of the value and attainability of the goal of the website. There will be places where the user can hover the mouse over a field to browse a fact “bubble” designed to motivate change. For example, a “Quick Fact” bubble may provide information such as this:
“The USA is the world’s biggest greenhouse gas generator.”16
that would illicit concern with some users over the irresponsibility our country has shown in this matter and the hope that they can have an effect on this problem.
Other facts may be more provocative and help illicit the feeling of concern for the future. These effects could be on the global economy as well as the health of the earth. For example:
“It has been estimated that global temperatures will rise by 4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the year 2100 causing annual economic damages to possibly reach $20 trillion.”17
or
“Each year, 200 cubic kilometers of Greenland’s ice sheet melts. This is 200 times the amount of water that Los Angeles will consume this year.”18
Since people are inherently such different individuals with different motivations, a wide variety of motivational reasons will be provided in hopes that one will spark a concern strong enough to motivate change. A certain segment of users may be more motivated by personal safety, so highway death statistics could be cited as well:
“Each year there are over 42,000 deaths on U.S. roads”19
Stress is also a factor to consider for many people since driving can be a stress inducing experience as opposed to sitting on a train or a bus:
“About a third [of drivers] can be classified as aggressive drivers. Six in 10 concede they sometimes go well over the speed limit. Sixty-two percent occasionally get frustrated behind the wheel, more than four in 10 get angry and two in 10 sometimes boil into road rage. And nothing fuels driver anger like getting stuck in a traffic jam.”12
There have even been studies linking greenhouse emissions with shortened life spans:
“A recent European study determined that air pollution causes 6% of all deaths, thereby killing many more people than traffic accidents”19
“A 2005 European Commission study found that airborne pollution reduced life expectancy by almost 9 months and was the cause of 310,000 early deaths.”20
“Helpful Hint” types of information bubbles would provide suggestions such as alternative ways to save fuel:
“If everyone reduced their driving speed from 65 to 55 mph, we’d save 3 million gallons of gas a day”22
or
“The U.S. Department of Energy reports that underinflated tires increase fuel consumption by up to 6 percent and one study estimates that 50 to 80 percent of all tires on the road are underinflated. By these estimates, the U.S. could save up to 2 billion gallons of gas each year simply by properly inflating tires.” 23
With facts like these, the hope is that when people do choose to drive, they will drive responsibly and do what they can to reduce their gasoline consumption which is still the bottom line goal of the website.
A natural tendency of some people may be to try and ignore and not accept or believe in the ramifications of their current actions. The website will again use poignant facts to try and clarify potential counter arguments, such as the sentiment that advancements in science will reduce our emissions significantly:
“Automobile fuel efficiency improvements have been no match for the continued increase in demand for oil16. Currently, U.S.emissions are 7 billion per year – that’s 23 tons per person. Globally, it will be about 80 billion metric tons per year in the year 205024. It will take decades before alternative fuels such as hydrogen can reach mass market status17, but you can make a difference today”.
OffRoads as Social Actor
The blog portion of the website will facilitate the use of computer as
social actor, the last in Fogg’s triad of persuasive roles of technology. The blog was added later in the design process as a means of providing a social support network of people who have used the website to make the change and have found it rewarding. The addition of this was spawned by several of B.J. Fogg’s principles:
“Principle of Social Learning – A person will be more motivated to perform a target behavior if he or she can use computing technology to observe others performing the behavior and being rewarded for it.”13
“Principle of Normative Influence – Computing technology can leverage normative influence (peer pressure) to increase the likelihood that a person will adopt or will avoid performing a target behavior.”13
The blog will contain success stories and real people that users can contact to ask questions regarding their experiences. It will be of particular value for new OffRoads users to contact other users who have similar issues due to their geographical proximity. This support network will facilitate sharing information as well as motivation and will show that it is not only possible but simple and has an overall positive net gain to make the switch. Therefore, this facet fosters persuasion through social dynamics and praise
13. Why will these previous users continue to blog with new users who are potential candidates for making the switch? Fogg cites the reciprocity rule which he says is followed in every human society. It states that if you receive a favor, you should pay it back in some way
13. In this case, the “favor” is the enlightenment that making the change is advantageous and simple to achieve. To pay back the favor, the previous users share their experiences.
Adding Fun and Publicizing the Website
Motivating visitors to the website was viewed as a potential problem that would need to be addressed. To add an element of fun to this website, equating savings with “prizes” such as a big-ticket item for an annual dollar savings (big screen television for example) or a number of calories burned with a number of the user’s favorite snack would be provided. This aspect could be used to produce advertising revenue if necessary: “Walking one mile per day burns 93 calories
25 which is equivalent to 516 Oreo cookies annually
26”. Surely Nabisco would be interested in advertising alongside that information on an ecologically minded “green” website that would improve their public image.
As a means of publicizing the website and rewarding users of OffRoads who have successfully converted to public transportation, bumper stickers would be made such as ones with the motto “Make the Switch and Make a Difference…I did”. There may be bumper stickers with a user’s results of how much they are saving by NOT driving “this” car to work. T-shirts are envisioned with logos on the front stating “I’m saving the world…” and their annual emission savings numbers on the back: “2,378 pounds of carbon dioxide per year… How about you?” (with the website url included of course) . Another T-shirt slogan might read on the front “Breathe Easy” and on the back “I’m saving the world 2,378 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.” Other T-shirts would simply prominently display their “numbers”: CO2, money, time, and calories savings and ask “What are YOUR numbers?” A shirt with a fun fact such as “I can eat 516 more Oreos a year since I made The Switch”. These shirts would not only be rewards for users but walking advertisements for the website, too, as we know that motivation to get users to
go to the website will be a challenge.
Other incentives would appear in the blog section of the website and the main portion of the website by showcasing “star” users. This would come in many forms: the highest gasoline savings of any user ever to switch, the weekly or monthly spotlighted user, etc. This requires some amount of validation which would be difficult and is a challenge we have not addressed. Users could be motivated by these “star” users but only if they believe that they are true stories. Users need to know that a website is reputable to maintain faith in it
13 and this is just one small aspect of gaining the users trust that would need to be addressed. Unfortunately, use of advertising mentioned previously to create maintenance revenue may have the adverse side effect of reducing credibility, as users are more likely to trust a nonprofit organization
13. An alternative method of revenue for this website will be contributions from interested corporations and other benefactors.
We hope that users will realize how much they can affect their world when they choose to take even a small step when it is multiplied by the frequency of the 5-day work week over a long period of time. If this website could convince even a small fraction of current habitual drivers to switch to public transportation, it could prove to be very worthwhile.