[Paper Review] PureNav: A Personalized Navigation Service for Environmental Justice Communities Impacted by Planned Disruptions

Omar Hammad, Md Rezwanur Rahman+4 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Feb 17, 2024

Geographic Information Systems Studies4 citations

TL;DR

PureNav is a personalized navigation service designed for environmental justice communities affected by large-scale construction projects, such as the Central 70 highway project in Denver. It delivers real-time, localized data on air quality, road closures, traffic, and weather through a Slack-based interface, reducing user stress and improving well-being—demonstrated by strong correlations between usage and improved mood, especially for those near construction zones.

ABSTRACT

Planned disruptions such as highway constructions are commonplace nowadays and the communities living near these disruptions generally tend to be environmental justice communities -- low socioeconomic status with disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects. A major concern is that such activities negatively impact people's well-being by disrupting their daily commutes via frequent road closures and increased dust and air pollution. This paper addresses this concern by developing a personalized navigation service called PureNav to mitigate the negative impacts of disruptions in daily commutes on people's well-being. PureNav has been designed using active engagement with four environmental justice communities affected by major highway construction. It has been deployed in the real world among the members of the four communities, and a detailed analysis of the data collected from this deployment as well as surveys show that PureNav is potentially useful in improving people's well-being. The paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of PureNav, and offers suggestions for further improving its efficacy.

Motivation & Objective

• Address the disproportionate impact of planned construction disruptions on environmental justice communities (EJCs), particularly in terms of commute disruptions, air pollution, and health effects.
• Develop a navigation system tailored to the needs of low-income, often older or non-tech-savvy residents in EJCs who face frequent road closures and pollution.
• Mitigate negative well-being effects by providing timely, personalized, and actionable information about commute routes and environmental conditions.
• Evaluate the system’s impact on user behavior, emotional well-being, and perceived usefulness through real-world deployment and mixed-methods analysis.
• Inform future design of equitable, community-centered mobility technologies by integrating feedback from diverse community stakeholders.

Proposed method

• Conducted three community focus groups with 32 residents from four EJCs (Elyriya-Swansea, Globeville, Cole, Calyton) to identify key concerns related to construction disruptions.
• Deployed a first version of PureNav as a smartphone app with route recommendations and step-by-step directions, later replaced by a Slack-based interface to reduce cognitive load.
• Collected usage data and emotional feedback via the PurEmotion app over two six-week deployments with ~85–95 participants.
• Implemented a Slack-based PureNav system that delivers pre-emptive, personalized metadata about routes—including air quality, weather, road closures, and incidents—without real-time navigation prompts.
• Used correlational analysis to link PureNav usage with changes in self-reported mood and perceived usefulness.
• Conducted end-of-study surveys to assess user perceptions of key features such as pollution avoidance and real-time road information.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How do we build a helpful software system to support environmental justice communities while navigating areas affected by large construction projects?
• RQ2 What can we learn about trip scheduling behavior from the usage of an information system deployed in environmental justice communities?
• RQ3 To what extent does the proposed intervention mechanism, PureConnect, help in mitigating the negative impacts of the construction project in environmental justice communities?

Key findings

• There was a strong positive correlation between higher PureNav usage and increased positive feelings, and a negative correlation with negative feelings, suggesting improved emotional well-being.
• Users closer to the construction site reported significantly higher perceived usefulness of PureNav’s data, indicating localized relevance enhances user trust and engagement.
• The feature providing real-time road information—such as closures, incidents, and weather—was rated as highly valuable compared to general navigation apps.
• The ability to avoid polluted areas was another key feature users found particularly useful, especially for those with respiratory sensitivities.
• Despite the value of information, the initial GPS-based navigation features were perceived as distracting and unnecessary by regular commuters, leading to the shift to a non-directional, metadata-focused Slack interface.
• The study found no causal link between PureNav use and well-being, but the consistent correlations suggest that timely, personalized environmental data can meaningfully support EJCs during disruptive projects.