Ride Connect is a tool integrated into the social networking site Facebook's (www.Facebook.com) event planning feature. Ride Connect helps people coordinate transportation to specific events. We chose to focus on undergraduate students because changes in their attitudes and habits towards shared transportation will lead to a sustainable increase in public transportation (PT) use. Ride Connect encourages PT use through social incentives and by conveniently presenting user generated transportation options. Our study investigates how social incentives and convenient PT information lead to increased PT use, and how PT use, coupled with a reduction in stigma, leads to longterm behavioral and attitudinal changes towards PT. Keywords Social Networks, Human Computer Interaction Design (HCID), Social Incentives, PT ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous. H.5.2 User Interfaces: User Centered Design. H.5.3 Group and Organizati...
John M. Booher, Balakrishna Chennupati, Nina S. On