Student Innovations: d.school Teams Propose Campaigns for Transportation Safety and Sustainability
Student teams from the d.school course "Design for Extreme Affordability" developed two potential solutions/campaigns in the Transportation domain: new student communications and helmet use. For the first category, the students designed innovative ways to present transportation resources so that students new to campus can easily discover transportation information (e.g., Marguerite shuttle, Zipcar, rental cars) and confidently navigate their mobility options from day one. Most students, they noted, arrive thinking that Stanford is a top-notch biking campus and are unaware of how to navigate the free Marguerite Shuttle.
The goal was to enable students to find and understand pertinent transportation information before arrival and during their transition to campus, so they can feel supported and confidently navigate their mobility options from day one. Among the unique ideas presented were piggybacking onto the annual Frosh Scavenger Hunt (aka ‘Scav Hunt’). The Scav Hunt is a popular social event in which students take the Caltrain to San Francisco. Transportation could integrate into this fun event, and students could start their “hunting tasks” on campus, such as taking a selfie with a Marg driver or photographing three parked Zipcars.
Another creative way to reach students is to post QR codes with Transportation-Related information on the doors of campus bathroom stalls, where a captive audience is guaranteed. (What, no Stanford Transportation-branded tp?)
Another student team worked with Stanford Transportation on a project to encourage student athletes to wear helmets while biking around campus. Grounded in behavioral science and athletic culture, the team developed a campaign that frames helmet use as a matter of responsibility to teammates and team goals, rather than solely as an individual risk. The campaign includes positioning helmets as essential athletic "equipment." Choosing not to wear a helmet while biking is presented not as a personal risk, but as letting the team down and breaking shared expectations. Team captains and teams could use their influence to enforce a collective agreement on "mandatory" helmet use and highlight the connection between helmet use and athletes' safety, health, and performance. Put more simply: More bike helmet usage = fewer injuries = healthy and high-performing players on the field.
