PLAY & GO: THE COMMUNITY GETS INVOLVED FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY

Play&Go supports administrations in delivering long-term sustainable mobility campaigns with the aim of making the use of sustainable means of transportation enjoyable and rewarding (via instant feedback to users and virtual and real rewards) and the effects achieved as well as the impact on the mobility system measurable. Play&Go covers all phases of this process: from defining customized mobility campaigns, to implementing and validating them.

Play&Go is a platform developed by FBK that consists of four tools:

1. Gamification Framework. Support of definition, execution, and management of game campaigns. The framework supports various competitive and collaborative gaming concepts, that are customizable and extensible (e.g. points reward programs, badge collections, periodic and global rankings); automatic generation of dynamic and custom gaming experiences that take into account users’ profiles and mobility policies to be promoted; automatic validation of tracked travel.
2. Viaggia Play&Go. A personalized and gamified mobile application for sustainable info-mobility that: (i) provides citizens with updated, integrated and inter-modal mobility information; ii) suggests and rewards mobility behaviors in line with sustainability goals.
3. Analysis dashboard. It provides administrations with a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the mobility system and the impact of gaming campaigns. It allows to analyze the impact in terms of participation, change of behavior, and effects on the mobility system.
4. Incentive system. The sustainability of gaming campaigns is ensured by the active involvement of the local business fabric. Companies and businesses are directly involved in these initiatives, not just as promoters of the initiative among their employees and customers, but also as real incentive providers (e.g. discounts, coupons, gifts).

Play&Go was created under the EU FP7 STREETLIFE (2013-2016) project, of which FBK was a scientific coordinator. The solution was adopted by the City of Rovereto (TN) in the framework of the Viaggia Rovereto Play&Go sustainable mobility campaign (April 18 – June 19, 2016) and by the City of Trento for the Viaggia Trento Play & Go (September 10 – December 2, 2016).

Both campaigns have achieved very significant results. In the case of Viaggia Trento Play&Go, more than 1000 App installations, over 700 active players, over 20,000 tracked trips (of which 13,000 zero impact ones) were recorded. The experiment showed both the ability to support citizen participation in long-lasting games and the ability to change player behavior: 27% of players were active until the end of the game, 45% of players tried at least one new sustainable means of transport. Finally, an important result was the creation of a local community of active users for more sustainable mobility.

In the wake of this success, a new mobility campaign, Viaggia Trento e Rovereto Play&Go, was launched on September 9, 2017. This initiative, promoted jointly by the administrations of the Municipalities of Trento and Rovereto, will last six months (it will end on March 2, 2018) and will allow to reach a wider community of users that will get involved for a smarter and greener region. This year’s edition as well is having a great success: in over four weeks, more than 500 users have joined the game and more than 9500 jtrips have been tracked.

The Play&Go solution, thanks to an open, modular and multi-level architecture, inspired by Smart City and Next Generation internet platforms, is easily replicable in other national and international settings, and its adoption is not limited to citizen use, but it is also suitable for wider areas (provinces, regions).