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

Santos, Georgina and Peñafiel Mera, Allan (2024). Commuter Dilemma Game: Interviews Conducted whilst Playing a Serious Game, 2022-2023. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-856885

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.

Data description (abstract)

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.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Santos Georgina	Cardiff University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8446-8297
Peñafiel Mera Allan	Cardiff University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3010-2230

Sponsors:

Economic and Social Research Council, Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council

Grant reference:

EP/S032053/1

Topic classification:

Transport and travel

Keywords:

CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS, ROAD TRANSPORT, TRANSPORT POLICY, PERCEPTIONS, COMMUTING, TRANSPORT

Project title:

Two projects: Re-structuring Road user charges in the UK in preparation for an “ACE” future and Decarbonising Transport through Electrification, a Whole System Approach

Grant holders:

Allan Peñafiel Mera, Georgina Santos

Project dates:

From	To
1 June 2022	30 September 2022

Date published:

05 Feb 2024 09:34

Last modified:

05 Feb 2024 09:35

Coverage and Methodology

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
1 July 2022	31 August 2023

Geographical area:

Cardiff, UK

Country:

United Kingdom

Data collection method:

The data deposited here is a file which contains transcripts of 10 interviews that were conducted whilst playing a Serious Game, called the Commuter Dilemma Game. The researcher used a telecommunication platform (Microsoft Teams) to share the screen where the game was executed. The researcher controlled the buttons and read the instructions while the participants concentrated on making decisions and answering the questions asked by the researcher.

The individual sessions lasted 1 hour and 27 minutes on average. The interview recordings were automatically transcribed by Microsoft Teams. As it can be expected, the automatic transcripts were highly inaccurate, but they constituted a valuable starting point and saved time. The fragments of the transcripts used for the analysis were corrected to guarantee maximum fidelity to what had been said in the interviews.

Each interview is separated in one cell. The participant number, interview date and topic are stated at the beginning of each cell. The transcripts contain the following codes: IN(Interviewer), PN(Participant), and N=(number).

The sample was a convenience sample and, therefore, not representative.

The participants were ten car drivers based in Cardiff for whom the car is their main mode of transport. This was important because the aim of the project was to explore car drivers’ perceptions to an increase in fuel prices as a result of an increase in fuel duties or as a result of the introduction of an Emissions Trading System.

Observation unit:

Individual

Kind of data:

Text

Type of data:

Qualitative and mixed methods data

Resource language:

English

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