START: Sustainable transport awareness recommendation tool

Abstract

Sustainable mobility has become one of the most pressing issues in modern society. The need to raise awareness of climate change, combined with the overcrowding of metropolitan and urban areas, has produced a situation that requires an urgent solution. Some earlier approaches dealt primarily with transport-related issues, while some conceptual models attempted to increase the appeal of public transport by linking the services provided by public transport operators to a variety of city services. A practical and empirical answer, on the other hand, has not yet been given. This research addresses these issues by taking a holistic approach and presenting a personalized recommendation system based on users' everyday activities as well as their mobility profiles. The crossing of both sources of information allows for a more user-centric experience, ensuring that the offers presented are adapted to the tastes of customers. The potential of such a system is proven using data from Porto, Portugal. Two types of data sources were used to obtain more accurate results: data from the automated fare collection system of the Porto Metropolitan Area, Portugal, and data from city services taken from Google Places. The fundamental idea behind tackling this problem is to encourage people to use public transport by providing them with incentives such as discounts, promotions and service offers to encourage them to use cleaner and more efficient modes of transport.