Unlocking the Potential of Digital, Situation-Aware Nudging for Promoting Sustainable Mobility

The context ultimately decides on mobility options and thus shapes mobility behavior. Nudges are an increasingly used strategy for promoting sustainable modes of everyday mobility. However, in most cases, the design of nudges and the triggers for issuing these interventions neglect the user’s specific context and are thus less relevant to the recipient. Digital nudges communicated through mobile devices offer situation awareness, which is facilitated by geographic information systems (GIS). Using the geographic reference as the “primary key” allows for connecting the current location information of recipients with static and real-time environmental data that define the contextual situation. We describe a framework for triggering situation-aware nudges and provide a functional proof-of-concept. Through linking concepts from behavioral economics and psychology with methods from GIS science and Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI), we illuminate new opportunities for promoting sustainable mobility.