Smartphone Travel Survey app
Adam Davidson, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Faculty Advisor: Jon Peters
People are increasingly relying on their mobile phones as a tool to help them get around. For years, mobile phones have allowed plans to be more fluid, with details such as time and place to be worked out en route. Over the past few years, the increased graphical and computational ability of smartphones has made it easy to show travel conditions, suggest routes, guide travel and connect people with rides. Evidence suggests that such interactions are becoming more commonplace and normalized among younger populations, which should have implications for future transportation services. For example, this timely NPR article discusses how teens are using social media to find rides and reduce their need for cars.
This project focuses on the influence of interactive communication technologies (ICTs) in determining travel mode choice. ICTs are conceived of as an influencing factor which enables transportation behaviors that would not be either possible or consistent without the type of two-way, dynamic, and localized information that ICTs enable. The purpose of this project is to create a survey tool that is available at the place where these decisions are enabled: the smartphone. The survey tool will be used to collect data from willing participants on smartphone use and travel habits.