I-Pet Individual Persuasive Eco-travel Technology: A tool for VTBC program implementation

Voluntary Travel Behavior Change (VTBC) programs aim to improve both community information and awareness about personal contributions to the negative effects produced by private car use. Indeed, providing individuals with quantitative feedback (travel time and costs, CO2 emitted, etc.), as well as information about existing alternatives to the car, has been shown to motivate people to reduce car use. This paper presents the architecture of a technology platform constructed for the purpose of automating phases and activities of a Voluntary Travel Behavior Change program, with a view to extending it to the large scale, reducing the resource commitment. The objective of the study is to develop a VTBC program that uses technology both for enhancing the efficacy of the implementation and for highlighting the contribution that technology itself can provide in persuasion strategies. Indeed, recent research has shown that persuasive technology can lead people to change their cognitive process, attitudes and behavior.