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Developing these norms and ensuring that energy
sustainability is seen as an imperative will require
the active support of opinion leaders and
governments (Watson et al 2010). Eco-effectiveness
is concerned with “doing the right things” as
opposed to “doing things right”. Political leaders in
Denmark for instance have levied a 180% tax on
petrol engined cars while zero-emission vehicles are
exempt, and the New York Times (29 July, 2011)
notes that countries such as France, Germany,
Britain, Portugal and Spain all heavily subsidize the
purchase of electric vehicles (EVs). Similar
approaches are in evidence in both the US and Asia
(Ahman, 2004).
In addition Watson proposes four key design
elements. These are ubiquity, uniqueness, unison
and universality and their usefulness in the design of
information systems is well established within the IS
literature (Outram, 2010, Tzeng, 2008, Sammer,
2011, Galanxhi-Janaqi, 2004, Placido et al, 2011).
Ubiquity is access “to information unconstrained by
time and space” (Junglas, Watson, 2006). Providing
ubiquitous access to information about a service
enables users to access information from wherever
they may be located and to explore their options to
increase the usefulness of that service. Unison,
sometimes referred to as consistency, proposes that
the procedure of accessing information varies as
little as possible. This might mean that users could
access information from multiple services or
locations while needing only to learn a single
procedure. Universality relates to the drive to reduce
compatibility issues or friction between information
systems in order to achieve seamless data exchange.
XML (extensible markup language), web services,
and application programming interfaces (APIs) have
become the de facto means of achieving this
interoperability (Rainer and Cegielski, 2011, pp184).
Uniqueness is described in the literature as “knowing
precisely the characteristics and location of a
person or entity” (Junglas, Watson, 2006). With
information, it can be used to find the best match
between the user’s needs and the physical resources
available. Many bikesharing schemes for example
uniquely identify both bikes and users, which means
that users can view the availability of bikes and
parking spaces on a station by station basis while
system administrators can use usage patterns to
inform fleet management and other operational
functions (Buttner et al, 2012)
Research suggests, (Watson, 2009, Outram et al
2010, Midgely 2009, Chowdhury, 2007), that the
more successful systems have supported their
physical infrastructure with information systems
which implement these elements. They “minimise
the limitations of the physical system and enable and
support users to adopt behaviours that help rather
than hinder the environment” (Outram et al, 2010).
2 EI IN PRACTICE – THE
COPENHAGEN WHEEL
Bikeshare schemes have become an increasingly
popular phenomenon in recent years as urban
planners across the world have used them to
improve urban mobility and reduce the
environmental impact of motorised transportation
systems. The basic premise of the schemes is that
bikes are made available throughout the city
environment and are then used to support what are,
for the most part, relatively short trips. The schemes
have the added benefit of providing a link between
existing transport nodes and required destinations.
System providers include governments, public-
private partnerships, transport agencies, universities,
advertising agencies and for-profit organisations
(Midgely, 2011). Schemes typically use independent
docking stations capable of automatically checking-
out and returning bikes. Users are required to
subscribe to the schemes initially and can then
access the bikes through a variety of technologies
which include smart cards, fobs, direct access codes,
or SMS (Buttner et al, 2011). System information,
such as the availability of free bikes and stands, or
the riders’ usage statistics, is typically made
available through web based applications, or at
interfaces incorporated into the station kiosks.
Kiosks can usually support registration and payment
options. The recent adoption of mobile phone
applications by many schemes has also improved
access and usability (Buttner et al, 2011). From an
EI perspective, bikeshare schemes can be seen to
represent conventional supply and demand networks
which attempt to manage the “flow” of bikes in
order to maximise the number of trips.
The Copenhagen wheel is a research project
developed in 2009 by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology’s SENSEable City lab for the
Kobenhavns Kommune - the Copenhagen
Municipality. Though not being developed
exclusively for the bikeshare environment, the
development team anticipate that this will be its
primary application. Through the use of mobile and
web technologies the wheel attempts to replace the
traditional kiosk and docking station model and
allow bikes to be secured to any traditional bike
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