Driving change: How behavioural science can help to decarbonise the transport sector

Welcome back to our monthly newsletter! This month, we are considering the role that behavioural science can play in decarbonising the transport sector, by aiding the adoption of greener technologies, as well as influencing individuals’ transport behaviours. The first of our new webinar series - Behavioural Insights in Practice - is taking place next Thursday (2nd May), where you can learn more about The Waste Game, an online educational tool we developed for universities across Ireland.

Transport's journey to sustainability

One fifth of global CO2 emissions are caused by transport. In order to achieve Net Zero by 2050, emissions from the transport sector need to fall by 3% every year; however, since 1990, emissions have grown at an average rate of 1.7% (IEA, 2024). Clearly, the transport sector needs to significantly change in order to achieve this ambitious target. In large part, this will require technological and infrastructural advancements that will enable a drastic reduction in CO2 emissions, but individual and collective behaviour change will have a crucial role to play as well. Take electric vehicles for example: there is the technical challenge of developing the vehicles themselves, the infrastructural challenge of installing charging stations nationwide, and the behavioural challenge of overcoming consumers’ inertia, risk aversion, range anxiety, and other barriers that prevent them from adopting this new technology.

Individuals behave not only as consumers (which is how behavioural science typically thinks of them), but they also make decisions on the part of organisations, and act as policymakers and investors. Take companies as an example, whether a company endorses remote working, encourages international travel, or facilitates employees cycling to work impacts the transport emissions of its employees. And decisions about these factors are ultimately made by potentially nudgeable individuals.?

For transport-related behavioural interventions to be effective, they must consider the context and motivations of those whom they target. Rigorously testing interventions is vital to find what works, when, and for whom. Travel methods for routine journeys are typically strongly ingrained, but may be easier to influence at “moments of change” such as moving house, job, or school, or as the seasons change. Although the primary aim of an intervention might be to reduce emissions, highlighting co-benefits such as positive health effects, improved journey quality or lower costs might be more effective depending on the priorities of each individual traveller.?

There are many examples of behavioural insights being harnessed to have a positive environmental impact on individuals’ transport decisions. For instance:?

• Green number plates on electric cars make the adoption of this technology more salient, thereby spreading the (dynamic) social norm of driving electric cars, as well as allowing early adopters to signal their green identity to others.
• The Uber map, information boards on tube platforms, and apps for bike rental all provide information about the availability of that transport method, which enhances our experience of using them by reducing uncertainty and anxiety.?
• Travel applications have adopted various nudges to encourage sustainable travel methods. For example, Google Maps indicates how much of your route will be completed via cycle lanes and whether it is flat, whilst CityMapper tells you how many calories you will burn by taking active transport and even converts this into units of food - apparently cycling for 20 minutes will burn 94 calories, or 0.5 packets of crisps!

Our work in the transport sector

We work with transportation authorities, operators and companies to influence and measure travel behaviour, with a focus on reducing emissions and improving wellbeing.?

We conducted the first ever randomised control trial in the aviation industry, when we worked with Virgin Atlantic to nudge pilots to waste less fuel . The interventions saved a whopping 21,500 tons of fuel, generated a financial return of 2,143%, and even improved pilots’ job satisfaction - a win-win(-win)!

We also worked with Uber to measure the value they deliver to customers . We developed a revealed preference measure, and used a regression discontinuity design, to calculate the difference between what customers paid for a journey and what they were willing to pay. We found that for every $1 a customer spends, they gain $1.57 in consumer surplus; to test this yourself, before you next order an Uber, ask yourself what the maximum price you are willing to pay is, and if the price they quote is less than that, appreciate the surplus!

More recently, we worked with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission of the San Francisco Bay Area to test the effect of informational nudges and incentives to encourage residents to use more sustainable transportation modes. The intervention’s were delivered through Metropia’s travel app, which enabled us to send drivers various messages, such as informing them of the social cost of driving a particular journey and reminding them of their desire to be sustainable, as well as offering them financial incentives not to drive. The results of this project will be published soon!

Coming soon…

It’s less than one week until we host the first webinar of our new series Behavioural Science in Practice. Don’t miss Senior Behavioural Scientist Filippo Muzi-Falconi and Managing Director Jesper ?kesson take you through The Waste Game we developed to improve waste practices at universities across Ireland. Sign up here to join hundreds of other professionals for the webinar on Thursday 2nd May at 4pm.

Shoutout to Darianna, our student intern

Darianna is a masters student in Applied and Social Psychology at the University of East Anglia, and joined TB as part of a student placement module. Over the past few months, Darianna has been helping on a range of projects, including interventions to improve air quality for the West Midlands Combined Authority, and helping Islington Council to implement climate-positive behavioural change amongst its residents. In addition, Darianna has authored our most recent blog post, which focuses on how behavioural insights can be used to reduce loneliness (linked below). It has been a pleasure to have Darianna I. Frontera Villanueva, MS join the TB team - she has been a valuable addition!

We hope you enjoyed this month’s newsletter! If you have any thoughts on this topic or others, or ideas for us to work together, don’t hesitate to get in touch !