A team comprising design agency Lunar, university researchers at Wuppertal in Germany and sustainable living initiative Green City has created a concept for the future of urban mobility, referred to as ‘Mo‘. The system ties together existing public transport infrastructure such as buses and trains with personally owned bikes and cars. It relies on mileage tracking using a system of GPS tags and users’ smartphones.

When a user covers miles on a bike, they earn Mo credits. When they use public transport, they pay a small number of Mo credits. If they use a car, the number of Mo credits required increases.

Mo was developed by interviewing 200 users about their transportation behaviours and then iterated through a series of qualitative studies with a smaller number of individuals. It is an interesting example of MEX Pathway #7, entitled ‘Express sustainable values in user experience’, which explores how mobile devices and wireless technology can work with, or help adapt, user attitudes to sustainable living. Pathway #7 was in focus at the last MEX event in May 2011.

Thanks to Yanko Design for the link.