Evidence Brief: Behaviour Change for Active Travel – Dr Manu Savani

Efforts to promote active travel in the UK are facing challenges due to deeply ingrained habits and biases, according to a recent policy brief by Dr Manu Savani  (Politics and History). The brief highlights the need for a combination of behavioural nudges and traditional interventions to effectively shift travel behaviours towards more sustainable options.

Summary

• Behaviour change initiatives have successfully used information, norms, and persuasive appeals to shift attitudes and intentions towards more active travel.
• However, active travel decisions are often beset by the intentionaction gap. Interventions need to address behavioural biases (e.g. status quo bias and present bias), and deeply held beliefs (e.g. about the convenience and status of private car travel) to translate good intentions into real behaviour change.
• Active travel interventions might benefit from a longer timeframe for testing and implementation, because travel behaviours require sustained and repeated good choices to be made.
• They present a greater challenge than behaviours that require a one-off change for longer-term benefits.
• Research offers a wealth of good practice on how to design nudges and wider interventions for better chances of success.
• Combining nudges and behaviourally-informed approaches with more conventional interventions around infrastructure, incentives, and rules, may offer the best opportunity for sustained behaviour change.

Read the full evidence brief.