Micro-incentives: a Game-changer Strategy to Nudge Sustainable Mobility Behaviour

The COVID-19 crisis can have a paradoxical effect on the world’s mobility. The limitations imposed on mobility during lockdowns and increasing concerns about the need to keep some physical distancing thereafter have reduced ridership to historical lows, and this has had a tremendous impact on public transport finances (see here). But that same reduction in traffic, which has translated into cleaner skies, reduced CO₂ emissions, fewer crashes, and less noise, has reinforced the case – among public authorities and public opinion alike – for much more sustainable mobility in our cities and hence for public transport.

On the other hand, shared mobility schemes were also impacted by COVID-19. Indeed, during the first months of the pandemic, all the sharing models suffered a strong reduction in operations due to general lockdowns. Interestingly, we can consider some mobility services (like micromobility) as one of the winners, after all.

The Global Future Council on Mobility (at the World Economic Forum) in its Corporate Mobility Transport Challenge report has explained how the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies will accelerate the typical employee commute and decarbonisation. The report also explains the difficulties of companies in investing in digital platforms that enable more equitable and sustainable opportunities to commute from home to work or school. It is relevant to think that third-party companies and organisations will design and develop innovative business models to tackle the challenge of allowing employees to go to work, and students going to school, in a more sustainable manner.

Plenty of challenges are ahead of us to make mobility more sustainable and accessible for all. This requires focusing on more efficient use of public transport; shared mobility becomes part of the integrated offer of public transport; corporate mobility (commuting) is better understood and better planned, and logistics are optimised through the use of more efficient and holistic strategies.

Are micro-incentives a real game-changer idea to nudge mobility behaviour to leverage the current use of mobility services, such as public transport, and future mobility (and not so future) like shared mobility? The expected efficiency gain behind the multi-criteria, highly targeted micro-incentive strategy is that it could help reduce the cost to achieve similar indicator levels in terms of sustainability and equity, with significantly lower budgets. The introduction of micro-incentives (economic, fiscal, or in-kind) to foster journeys using zero-emission vehicles, encourage intermodality or increase the use of public transport outside peak hours is an innovative formula with increasing numbers of supporters internationally, which may be key in changing habits towards more sustainable mobility.

Factual is proposing a thought leadership study to analyse the prospects for reform to allow for the micro-incentives concept to help nudge user behaviour towards more sustainable mobility, and the required conditions for this to happen in 5 European cities.

The study will be divided into 3 parts:

For more information about this study, dates, and special sponsorship options for IRF members, download this document.