You can call me Caity.

     ”A new study has found that greater commuting distances are associated with decreased cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), increased weight, and other indicators of metabolic risk.”

     Of course, they mean commuting by car, which is an important distinction.  Individuals who commute via public transit have been shown to lose weight after switching from car-based to transit-based commutes, due to an associated increase in physical activity (walking to and from transit stations).  I imagine new cyclists have similar outcomes.  Just another reason why urban form is so integral to human health!

     This article discusses two things I love: transportation and healthy behaviors!  

     Here’s the idea: a person living in London uses the “re:route” app designed by Recyclebank to map their route to a given destination.  Re:route provides them with a number of alternatives for getting there, all of which include walking, bicycling, or using public transit, and exclude using their car.  They decide on their route, make the journey, and get rewarded at the end of their trip with Recyclebank “points”, which they can ultimately redeem for an array of goodies.  Sounds pretty great, right?

     Now, I don’t live in London, where re:route is being launched, and even if I could use it, as a graduate student living in a relatively small city, a smart phone app that provides several “alternative” (i.e., not in your car) options for traveling isn’t that relevant to me; if I want to get somewhere within my town, I usually just ride my bike.  However, having lived in large metropolitan areas in the past, where travel routes tend to be more congested and over longer distances, I think this idea is totally genius and could absolutely be useful. 

     That said, I’m an active person who studies alternative transportation and health.  It’s my passion.  If I can avoid driving my car to get somewhere, you better believe I’m going to do it.  So, what interests me most about this concept is the idea of using financial incentives to potentially get other individuals, individuals who would normally drive, to choose the more active option, such as biking, walking, and/or using transit, instead.  Obviously, this would involve a pretty major change in a habitual behavior (commuting style), which, anyone who has ever tried to break a habit can appreciate, is a difficult thing to do!  That’s why I wonder, will incentives such as those offered by Recyclebank really affect individuals’ travel behaviors in the long-run?

     In an small effort to get a better understanding of the mechanics of incentives and behavior change, and how it might work with a program like this one, I did a little cursory research and found some interesting (and, of course, not totally conclusive) findings.

     For instance, in BMJ (an open-access, peer-reviewed medical journal), I found research showing that financial disincentives, like taxes on drugs and alcohol, are known to deter unhealthy behaviors, while the affect of financial incentives, like monetary rewards, on encouraging healthy behaviors is less clear.  In the short-term, it appears that incentives take advantage of “present bias”, or the idea that humans tend to pursue smaller, more immediate rewards, even if larger, more long-term rewards are more highly valued.  What’s wrong with that?  Well, research (such as this work in the Journal of Economic Perspectives) also shows that rewards for performing certain behaviors actually undermine the likelihood that individuals will continue doing said-behaviors once the rewards stop.  This is because our motivation for performing the behavior shifts from a potentially intrinsic reasoning (motivation due to interest in the task itself) to an extrinsic reasoning (where a task is performed to attain a certain outcome).  And when the financial carrot is taken away, motivation dies, too.  In this case, perhaps increasing gasoline taxes or tolling roadways would have a more direct, long-term effect on travel behavior.

     That’s why, in terms of re:route, I can’t help but wonder who is actually going to use this app.  (Btw, I’m not dissing it, I love it.)  I imagine it would automatically be appealing to people like me, i.e. people who already like the idea of traveling “alternatively”.  But will it actually cause long-term change in travel behaviors for people who almost exclusively travel by car?  Now, that’s research I’d like to see.  

     I’m intrigued by this idea of temporary urban uses being the catalyst for long-term investment.  As far as I can tell, it seems to be a peculiar (and unfortunate) human trait that many of us are unable to think with the distant future in mind.  It’s like our brains aren’t wired that way.  It also seems to be difficult for many people to really imagine what something might be like until they’re experiencing it.  Obviously, there are photographs, 3-D technologies, and other “visioning” tools that can enhance people’s ability to “experience” a space, but frequently it’s being there - walking, touching, hearing, smelling - that really allows them to know it.  

     That’s why I think these “temporary developments”, which sometimes evolve into more permanent installations, are such an interesting planning tool, as well as a creative way to garner public participation in the development process.  Thinking about redeveloping an underutilized area, but are unsure about how it will be used, or how well it will be received?  Perhaps you can create a pop-up space, observe how people interact with it, and then tweak your idea accordingly.  In my opinion, it seems like a worthwhile short-term investment in a potentially long-term solution.

     While these findings are pretty intuitive, it’s nice to see what I regard as “common sense” (i.e., Neighborhoods with destinations within walking distance, sidewalks to walk on, access to healthy food, etc. tend to be healthier), backed up by research.  Plus, a friend of mine collected data for one of the projects, so that’s kinda fun! :)  

     Now, if we could just get developers and home-buyers to catch on…