Phone applications to track vehicle information have become more common place, providing insights into fuel consumption, vehicle status, and sustainable driving behaviorsHowever, to test what resonates with drivers without deep vehicle integration requires a proper research instrument. We built DriveStats: a reusable library (and encompassing an mobile app) to monitor driving trips and display related information. By providing estimated cost/emission reductions in a goal directed framework, we demonstrate how information utility can increase over the course of a 10 day diary study with a group of North American participants. Participants were initially interested in monetary savings reported increased utility for emissions-related information with increased app usage and resulted in self-reported sustainable behavior change. The DriveStats package can be used as a research probe for a plurality of mobility studies (driving, cycling, walking, etc.) for supporting mobile transportation research.
