Commuter Dilemma Game: Interviews Conducted whilst Playing a Serious Game, 2022-2023

The transport sector is responsible for around 20% of global CO2 emissions, and road transport alone contributes to three-quarters of that share. Since the European Union will implement a separate Emissions Trading System in 2027, which will cover road transport, buildings and additional sectors (mainly small industry), the study considered the idea for the UK. The research specifically explored differences in perceptions of fuel price increases as a result of an increase in fuel duties or as a result of the introduction of a parallel Emissions Trading System for road transport. A Serious Game was used to elicit perceptions. In the game, called the Commuter Dilemma Game, car drivers were presented with situations where they needed to make decisions in response to an increase in the pump price of fuel. The sample was a convenient sample, and therefore not representative. The players had to make decisions during the game were the essential, and these were aimed at triggering a discussion about the perception of an increase in the pump price of fuel resulting from different policies. Six decisions could be made: a) To choose which transport mode to use (car, bus, bicycle, walk), each with an associated time and fuel cost, b) To replace their car with a more efficient car, c) To not visit some of the facilities (such as health, education, shopping or leisure facilities) to reduce expenses, d) To move house, e) To complain about the policies triggering an increase in pump prices (with the complaint being some sort of formal complaint to the government, or simply moaning), and f) To join a demonstration against the pump price increase.This mini-project was supported by a PhD studentship held by Allan Peñafiel Mera and an UKRI grant held by Georgina Santos. It was a four-month project (June to Sept 2022), which fed into the bigger projects listed above. This mini-project was entitled: "Transport policy evaluation: A mixed-method approach for assessing differences between a fuel duty and a midstream emission trading system." The project explored differences in perceptions of fuel price increases as a result of an increase in fuel duties or as a result of the introduction of a parallel ETS for road transport. We employed a Serious Game to elicit perceptions. The game was designed to create situations where drivers would need to make decisions in response to an increase in the pump price of fuel. Ultimately, the idea was to get the study participants to reflect on their travel decisions both in the game and in real life.

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Geographic Coverage:

Cardiff, UK

Temporal Coverage:

2022-07-01/2023-08-31

Resource Type:

dataset

Available in Data Catalogs:

UK Data Service

Topics: