Cycling App in Korea Gives Rewards

The first and only smartphone application in the world that gives you rewards for cycling was made in Korea. The app is called Eco Mileage App. It gives you points for your bicycle ride which can be redeemed.

Sustainable transport experts try to emphasize health benefits, saved travel costs and environmental friendliness of cycling. For some people, this isn’t enough and incentives to cycling would have better effects. The Eco Mileage App contributes to the promotion of sustainable transportation in a very effective way.

 

Eco Mileage App

You can get the app for Android and iOS. After creating an account you have access to a community including rankings, spatial information of bicycle shops and much more.

The app was created by a non-profit organization, called Green Transport Movement, which is introduced in the last section of this blog post. The last update was in January 2014.

The following screenshots show how the trip recording looks like:

The welcome screen has a huge start button. In a map you can check your location and route. A swipe to the side gives you information on the total distance, speed, reduced CO2 amount and earned points. After finishing the ride the app shows you a summary of your ride. Again, the same information as before are presented. I received 163.9 points for a 8.2km long ride. It’s possible to share the results on Facebook and Twitter.

A user receives points for every ride. How many points depends, of course, on the distance. The points have to be redeemed within two weeks. The app should be used mainly by commuters or people who do their daily errands on bicycles.

The points can’t be paid out in money. The awards are small gifts such as stickers or bicycle utensils.

In 2014, 6,415 people used it and cycled a total of 2.8 million km and saved 6.2 million kg of CO2. In other words, the users cycled 71 times around the world and saved us from as many CO2 as 120,000 two year-old pine trees would consume.

 

About Green Transport Movement

The Green Transport Movement (녹색교통운동) was founded in 1993. In the 1990s Korea suffered from rapid motorization and a hostile transport policy. For example, there was a law that forbid pedestrian crossings at areas with a subway station. The Green Transport Movement played a very active part in the removement of this law and the establishment of a better pedestrian environment.

It’s a non-profit organization that aims to realize people-oriented transport policies and traffic culture that respects lives. It helps to improve the situation for mobility-impaired people, make a convenient public transport system and help families that lost a family member in a traffic accident.

I’m a member of the organization. I enjoy their events and their website Greentransport.org provides information about transport in Korean.

Currently, they are trying to get funds for the Eco Mileage App through crowdfunding. An donation page is set up on Daum’s crowdfunding portal. The funding ends on August 26.

There are still away from their goal. If you have a Daum account, then you can donate money. Daum will also donate money for every comment at the bottom of the crowdfunding page. So my dear readers, please write at least a comment.