Travel Smart
influencing travel behaviors to reduce crowding
The solution Travel Smart aims to influence passenger’s decisions and thus eventually behaviours by nudging them through information and incentives. Travel Smart would provide recommendations on how to avoid crowding and enable safer travels by incentivising travelling outside rush hours. It would use an umbrella campaign to promote it. A holistic concept aiming at reaching a greater number of passengers and influencing their travelling behaviour.
The Process
The project was done as a part of Master studies at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. It addresses the challenge presented by Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL) through the multidisciplinary master course at Openlab, a challenge-driven innovation community, with experts in transforming innovation for the public sector through design methods and digital innovation platforms.
SL is Region Stockholm's public transport company, responsible for buses, underground trains, commuter trains, trams, and certain ferry lines running in Stockholm County. Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, SL faced a challenge to reduce crowdedness in Public Transportation and thus presented the following brief:
Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL). SL Journey Planner And Tickets. https://appadvice.com/app/sl-journey-planner-and-tickets/918418291 (Accessed 2020-10-29);
Openlab. https://openlabsthlm.se/ (Accessed 2020-10-29)
How can we convey statistics on ridership/congestion to passengers, so that they can use the information when planning their journey?
Understanding the problem
SL´s ridership decreased 40-60% at the beginning of the pandemic, compared to the same time last year but the traffic was not evenly distributed across times and modes of transport. The threshold for crowding has been redefined due to the pandemic, and the PT is now considered to be crowded when half the seats are taken, which is lower than before.
3
Meetings with SL
Stakeholder mapping
Target group: People living in Stockholm Region, Sweden
Deep Interviews
Pop-up Interviews
while Observation
at Odenplan, Stockholm
25
23
Observation Activity
Trick or touch
The observation activity was conducted to see how people pressed buttons and touched the poles in Public Transport, if they were cautious or they had a trick like using the elbows or pulling up the sleeves or not.
Insights
Frequency of travel varies....
there are daily travellers and also some who have stopped travelling
............and so does behaviours
some have embraced the situation and behave exactly like they did pre-pandemic, some plan their travels, avoid rush hours, keep distance and wear a mask.
People had different feelings.....
Relaxed
“I am not worried, it is good to be in Sweden as there is freedom.”
“I feel safe here. I shouldn’t, but I do.”
Confused
“Depends on the city area. I’m really stressed on crowded buses.”
“I’m sad but not too worried for my own sake.”
Scared
“It’s problematic, I’m worried a bit all the time.”
People are acting stupid, taking mask as a joke.”
...........wrong notions !
about COVID-19 and different definitions of crowding
"If I see lot of old people in the bus, I do not get in as they are most likely to have corona"
“I used to wash my hands in summer, not now as corona is not there anymore”
"When people are standing close to each other"
"no place to sit"
"isn't the maximum 50?"
And different expectations from SL.
some wanted SL to take more responsibility while others felt that the government should take actions. Some saw this an individual's responsibility
”I think they have done their bit, don’t know what more they can do”
”They should have more buses and better frequency”
User Groups
Rigid
Flexible
Travel Behavior
Self-concern
Relaxed
Scared
Societal concern
Chilled
Worried
Revised problem statement :
How might the passengers recognize and minimize health risks while commuting with public transport especially during rush hours?
Ideation
Brainstorming
Negative Brainstorming
Top 5s
Concept Selection
Clustering
Red-Yellow-Green
User group affinity matrix
7 concepts were generated as a result of the process, they were divided into short-term and long-term based on the impact and the issue it addresses. The concepts were also evaluated to see which works for which user group and how it caters to SL needs and constraints.
remove the existence of rush hours?
enable a similar understanding of the pandemic to all?
stop people from entering a full PT?
make people do social distancing in a fun way?
constantly trigger people to be conscious of their behaviour?
How might we
Short-term
1.
Wearable campaign
2.
Separate Wagons
3.
Visibility Campaign
4.
Limit bus passengers
Long-term
5.
SL App
Company Collaborations
7.
New Tickets
Concept Evaluation
15
Trigger material tests
Deep Interviews
Client Feedback
Evaluation Matrix
How-Now-Wow Matrix
Survey
137
Respondents
Distributed online, to people living in Stockholm Region, Sweden
Visibility Campaign
- Guerilla campaign showing how the virus spreads
New Tickets
- Non-rush hour
- Monthly cap
Concept detailing and user-testing
A storyboard was used as a walkthrough trigger material for new tickets concepts and existing diverse print material and video material on COVID-19 was shown to observe reactions. Different mediums and tones were tested to see what impacts people. User-tests for both concepts were conducted with individuals and focus groups to observe both individual and collective responses and interactions. It also gave insights to see the potential of word-of-mouth impact on influencing behaviours.
25
Focus groups
Deep interviews
Feedback and Re-evaluation
Insights from user testing
People want information to act on
There is information fatigue around the topic of COVID-19
information should be in context to trigger behaviour change
83% saw crowding as the major reason for the spread of virus
Most people feel unsafe in Public Transport wrt COVID
Around 65% could avoid the rush-hours, (out of which 35% sometimes)
81 (out of137) find the tickets expensive
Positive tone of communication
Cannot convey facts on health risks
Should not affect the long term aim of increasing ridership
Non-rush hour tickets will only act as added incentive, not trigger
Adequate discounts with be costly for SL
In case of monthly cap, people might start travelling more after reaching it
Feedback from SL
Survey Insights
Revised problem statement (2) :
How can we influence travel behaviours to prevent crowding in Public Transport?
Ideation
Revisiting old concepts
Quick 8s
15
Concept testing
Concept Selection
Clustering
Keep-Modify-Discard feasibility analysis
POV alignment check
to understand if a point-based incentive would work and where they would like to use those points. Pieces of advice and actions were shown to users to understand what they usually do, what they want to know and what they would be willing to do.
Travel Smart Campaign
Incentive
Reward for travelling outside rush-hours
Information
Actionable tips to avoid crowding
It tries to efficiently use the time pre-travel and during travel. As most decisions are made pre-travel, incentives will affect those but there are certain decisions that passengers make during travelling that can be affected by the information. Also, the time during travel is best for reaching the users so multiple channels like posters, screens in buses will be used. Passengers will be pushed to plan travels, reduce the number of travels, get down at less crowded stations etc.
Pre-travel
During travel
Different routes have rush at different times which is indicated in the SL app but to keep it fair for all, rush hours considered will be the same for all routes as defined by SL. One can collect points outside these hours with any type of ticket. People with registered accounts will be able to view their points. To keep a check on unnecessary travel just to collect point, a strategic cap on maximum is in place. These points can be used later to get discounts on future travels.
How a passenger will experience the campaign ?
The aim is to trigger using an incentive to affect decisions which would lead to long term behaviour changes that sustain without incentive.
It is crucial to have a simultaneous rollout of the information campaign and the incentives. Since SL has a functioning process for conveying information to their passengers, only the information materials need to be designed and the information channels selected. More efforts are required to develop the incentive system, which is not in place yet and needs to be designed in detail. Determining the worth of points in real money is something very crucial and has been left to be decided by SL as they have a better capacity and understanding for the same.
Ridership distributed, not reduced
Customer satisfaction
Data collection opportunities
May not affect all
Fairness issues
Balanced system difficult to reach
Flexible | Expandable | Transformative
Travel Smart is not a stagnated concept, it can easily be transformed and incorporated into new approaches. The intention is to give possibilities of change through an umbrella concept that is recognisable by the passengers. User testings brought that most people would prefer discounts within SL and in terms of implementation that would be the first step but it can be expanded to partnerships with people being able to use discounts at retails chains or grocery stores or with other services of region Stockholm. This would also be effective for reaching people with sponsored SL cards. The concept could also be extended to App with merging My SL account to provide a more personalised experience and gather better data.
Team: Anubhuti Gupta, Caroline Ehrenkrona, Matilda Svedmalm, Novita Supardi, Silvana Alves, Silvio Nießner
Major tasks: Process facilitation, design research planning, qualitative research analysis, detail design and presentation
Duration: September 2020- 15 January 2020