Helping university staff choose smarter travel
Transport for NSW partnered with the University of Sydney to help staff switch from driving to more sustainable ways of getting to campus. The pilot was based on the following Behavioural Science informed Interventions:
- Incentivise or reward people for switching to public/active transport - To disrupt current habits and to reward people for making the switch.
- Encourage leaders to model desired behaviours - Utilising Authority Bias by sharing stories of leaders taking public or active transport.
- Communicate what most people already do - Utilising the principle of Social Norms to make more visible that most staff take public transport.
- Show the hidden costs of driving - To surface Loss Aversion, as people may not realise how much driving really costs.
Through this, car use dropped by 31%, saving 1.1 tonnes of emissions and $1,359 in transport costs. The trial shows how small changes can support big goals and be scaled to other organisations.