SHFTR

You might not think about making the shift to sustainable transport modes if you’re comfy in your car, but this is a game that might get you into gear!  SHFTR is a game that sends you on a journey to interesting places around Adelaide, learning about how to get around by bike and public transport and the challenge is to contend with the real costs of your transport choices.

You pick a character who will determine what types of destinations you visit.  For example a child might seek out playgrounds while a young professional might seek out the newest coffee bars.

You then select your transport – the size of your car and the type of bike – these will determine how you are scored.  Then on a map of the city you are given a series of destinations and need to figure out the best way to get to each while the clock is ticking.

You could pick a car which is fairly quick and keeps your comfort score high, but you have to factor in the real monetary costs and your carbon emissions.

You could pick a bike which has zero emissions and almost no monetary cost, but you’ll need to find a bike rack at the end and be careful to pick a route with lots of bike lanes to make sure your comfort level doesn’t fall too far!

Or you could head to a stop on a public transport route and check when the next bus comes. It costs less than a car and has lower carbon emissions, but you need to keep your eye on the clock.

And of course walking is an option, but you can only walk so far before your comfort levels start to drop.

You win points by reaching the destination but lose points as you accumulate expenses and emit carbon dioxide. And if you exhaust your comfort level, you’ll have to take it easy until they gradually rise again which may cost you valuable time.  At the end of the game, you’ll see a summary of the impacts of your travel choices and of course your score.

SHFTR provides a fun and engaging way for the community to make more informed transport decisions.  It is especially valuable for people who rely almost entirely on their private vehicle and who otherwise might not be prompted to consider what other options are available and seek out the information they would need to use them. Through playing SHFTR, they can find out the locations of bike paths and parking, free bike hire nodes and public transport routes and stops as well as their regularity. Furthermore, the destinations in the game can make players aware of community facilities and points of interests such as playgrounds, libraries, museums and public art. SHFTR also has commercial potential since the destinations in the game could be local businesses that would pay an advertising fee.

In our proof of concept, we mashed in datasets of geolocated entities that the player can interract with or use, including bike racks and hire locations, parking meters, etc. For those interested in the technical implementation, we use a combination of mobile and web based platforms. Our web server was implemented using the spring boot framework, hosted on the NeCTAR reseach cloud. The Google Javascript Maps API was used on the client side. The Goolge Android Maps SDK was used for mobile app development.