Solving "Smart City" Transport Problems by Designing Carpooling Gamification Schemes with Multi-Agent Systems: The Case of the So-Called "Mordor of Warsaw"

To reduce energy consumption and improve residents’ quality of life, “smart cities” should
use not only modern technologies, but also the social innovations of the “Internet of Things” (IoT)
era. This article attempts to solve transport problems in a smart city’s office district by utilizing
gamification that incentivizes the carpooling system. The goal of the devised system is to significantly
reduce the number of cars, and, consequently, to alleviate traffic jams, as well as to curb pollution and
energy consumption. A representative sample of the statistical population of people working in one
of the biggest office hubs in Poland (the so-called “Mordor of Warsaw”) was surveyed. The collected
data were processed using spatial data mining methods, and the results were a set of parameters
for the multi-agent system. This approach made it possible to run a series of simulations on a set
of 100,000 agents and to select an effective gamification methodology that supports the carpooling
process. The implementation of the proposed solutions (a “serious game” variation of urban games)
would help to reduce the number of cars by several dozen percent, significantly reduce energy
consumption, eliminate traffic jams, and increase the activity of the smart city residents.