Cycle4Value

Despite various measures to promote cycling, the overall proportion of cycling in Austria has improved only slightly in recent years (BMVIT 2017 and 2013). As part of its mobility strategy, the Austrian Federal Government has therefore set itself the target of doubling the proportion of cycling in 7 years. To this end, not costly infrastructural measures but motivational or behavioural approaches should be pursued. In this context mobile apps for tracking but also for incentivising one's own data - as a technological manifestation of the "quantified self" - are developing rapidly. On the other hand, sweepstakes or even performance-related rewards are booming in many areas. At the same time, however, there is an increasing awareness of data protection in Europe. In this respect, blockchain technology has great potential in the handling of user data due to its decentralisation, transparency and security (Buhl et al., 2017). Applications on the blockchain are treated as disruptive innovators for a wide range of applications: from transaction processing to land register entries to logistics chains, the middleman is to be saved in the future, and data is to be stored in a forgery-proof and decentralised manner (Hopf & Picot, 2017). The application of these innovative measures could provide the impetus to promote cycling with all the associated benefits in terms of reduced emissions, positive health effects and reduced infrastructural costs. The solution envisaged in the project will reward cyclists for regular cycling by means of so-called "Cycle Tokens". The key technologies machine learning and blockchain represent an innovative solution for the validation of routing data and transaction processing. In the sense of a proof of concept, it is to be tested whether and how a safe and transparent process of value generation for regular cycling can be created via a utility token, which can translate the macroeconomic effects of cycling into value units. In the course of a broad field test in Graz, Berlin and Krems, the usability, acceptance and scalability of the developed solution will be analysed. The cost savings at individual and collective level are to be evaluated in close cooperation with a stakeholder board (e.g. UML Graz) and ultimately transferred into a market place, that will enable the exchange of cycle tokens into incentives such as discounts or spare parts.