An investigation of the motivators and barriers of smartphone app incentives for encouraging cycling

Reducing car use through positive intervention strategies using smartphone apps has attracted a great deal of attention. A common intervention strategy is bicycle use, which is cost-effective, fast, clean, and healthy. However, the potential effects of positive interventions on cycling behaviour have not been well explored. This study builds up a real-world lab by using the SMART Mobility smartphone application to test the effect of interventions. Participants are recruited through the app and their travel data is recorded by the app. Participants’ privacy is protected in the app and experimental concepts are reduced so that the real behaviours can be further reached and analysed. Four types of cycling-related challenges were designed in the app and provided to the users to adopt every month. A mixed logit explanatory model for behavioural change is developed to explain how the behavioural change is related to travel patterns, intervention types and other mediating factors and the possible moderators. More than 1,000 users from the Dutch region of Twente used the smart app from March 2017 to June 2018. We found that challenge type and travel pattern impacted behaviour changes differently. Overall, the cycling challenges were effective in encouraging people to use bikes instead of cars. However, the challenges also had the effect of causing additional bike usage without a modal shift. The findings from the study can help with intervention design decisions. •Positive incentives delivered by smartphone app can nudge travellers towards bicycle use.•Accessing incentives effects with a mixed logit explanatory model in the real-world lab achieved by the travel app.•All options contribute: relatively easy and difficult challenges have a similar positive effect.•For some users, increased bicycle use without an accompanying modal shift is unavoidable.•The more challenges users participate in, the stronger the effect on behavioural change.