Research

The project: Prior research has shown that alternative, local currency systems, used alongside national currency systems (like USD), can enhance local economies by helping people experiencing poverty initiate or participate in economically productive activities. In the USA and in Detroit in particular, time dollars provide one such alternative currency. Timebanks are nonprofit organizations through which members earn “time dollars” for providing services to other members. In timebanks, every person’s time is worth the same amount, and a wide variety of services are exchanged.

This project explores how time dollars and the exchanges surrounding them can be used to help communities to solve challenges associated with resource scarcity. In this case, researchers examined the scarce resource of non-emergency medical transportation within the city of Detroit and a new system designed to improve health care access for underserved communities in western Detroit.

The process: Researchers conducted participatory design sessions with riders and drivers as well as staff and volunteers from federally-qualified health centers, timebanks, and nonprofit organizations focused on community and economic development. They found that promoting trust between drivers and ride recipients in lower-resourced communities would requite shared mobility systems to prioritize mitigating safety, financial, and reliability-related risks. Such systems should promote long-term relational over short-term transactional interactions, and technology design should aim to strengthen these exchanges.

Based on input at the participatory design sessions, the research team designed mock-ups of proposed features for addition to the timebank’s online platform and gathered feedback on their potential acceptability and feasibility with riders, drivers, and intermediaries. Most important to users of the platform were features that built trust between riders and drivers, including displaying the driver’s history and endorsements, a photo of the vehicle, allowing riders to state their preferred health and safety precautions for the ride, and providing real-time tracking and other ride details with the timebank. After the ride, the ability to privately report safety concerns to the timebank made drivers and riders more confident in the service.

Results: The research team developed software to implement the most confidence-enhancing features for scheduling rides for non-emergency medical appointments in a manner that integrates with the existing timebank platform. The researchers authored two papers on trust-centered design for ridesharing services and the role of timebanks in addressing health care transportation barriers.

Tiffany Veinot, U-M School of Information
Tawanna Dillahunt, U-M School of Information