““Changes provides a window of opportunity to create new habits. With Smart Travel Habits, we want to help our residents dare to try a new travel habit – cleaner air, less noise and increased well-being at the bargain!”
– Katharina Paoli Brunat, CEO Nudgd
Gothenburg is growing rapidly. This growth is creating new opportuntities as well raising sustainability challenges. As the Masthuggskajen neighbourhood is built, the City is using Nudgds mobility service Smart Travel Habits to make it easier for residents in the area to travel smoothly and more sustainably – during construction, current pandemic and in the future.
“With Smart Travel Habits, we want to test the possibility of effectively reaching out to citizens with tailored and relevant communication that encourages more sustainable travel habits.“
– Elin Asplind, Communiication Manager Masthuggskajen, City of Gothenburg Traffic Office
Our mobility service Smart Travel Habits is based on behavioural science and uses nudging as a tool to change behaviour. Nudging is a friendly push in the right direction – making it easy to do the right thing.
With Smart Travel Habits, the residents of Masthuggskajen get free access to personalized and accessible information for sustainable travels in the city.
Why did the City of Gothenburg choose Smart Travel Habits?
“We want to make it easier for people living and working in the area to make sustainable travel choices. We also want to provide information about what is happening in the project and help residents to get around smoothly during construction.“
– Elin Asplind, Communication Manager Masthuggskajen, City of Gothenburg Traffic Office
The City of Gothenburg and the developers of Masthuggskajen have high ambitions to create a sustainable neighbourhood on the southern shore of the River Elbe in Gothenburg. When the distict of Masthuggskajen is developed, the City will invest in, among other things, better public transport and attractive walking and cycling paths as well as a car and bicycle pool. The City is actively working to make it easier for residents to live and travel sustainably.
A major challenge is accessibility in the district during the construction period. In order to cope with the construction period without too much traffic jams, car traffic needs to be reduced by 20% already during the construction period, according to the City of Gothenburg. Another challenge, as well as an opportunity – is the pandemic.
“During the pandemic, we see many people choosing cars and bicycles instead of public transport. We want to encourage more people to join the positive trend of biking, while at the same time getting more people out of their cars, especially once the pandemic is over.“
– Elin Asplind, Communication Manager Masthuggskajen, City of Gothenburg Traffic Office
We are very proud to be a part of this important work with our mobility service Smart Travel Habits!
What is Smart Travel Habits?
Smart Travel Habits is a mobility service using nudging to create more sustaianable travel habits. In concrete terms, the residents of Masthuggskajen have access to a link to the digital platform Smart Travel Habits. The Smart Travel Habits platform includes:
- A map showing various places in Gothenburg that facilitate sustainable travel, such as where there are bicycle pumps, electric bicycle parking and much more.
- Tools to plan your journey on foot, by bike or other sustainable means of transport.
- Other useful information such as what’s going on in the construction project, where to find recycling centres, where you can borrow leisure equipment and more.
Why nudging?
Smart Travel Habits is based on research on behavioral science and uses nudging as a tool to change behaviors. Nudging means a friendly push in the right direction – it should be easy to do the right thing.
With Smart Travel Habits we get measurable and tangible results, as many as a third of the users feel that Smart Travel Habits contributes to their travel choices every day Among other things what makes Smart travel habits effective is
- The timing; when the user receives the link is crucial The service takes advantage of the so-called “fresh start” effect, suggesting that a good opportunity to nudge users is during bigger life events such as renovations, moving to new accommodation or returning from holidays. New starts make it easier to break old habits and start new, more sustainable ones.
- Social norms– by highlighting and making visible sustainable behaviours, new norms are created. The more people who do something, the easier it is for others to follow.
- Making sure all information is easily accesible and clearly gathered in one place.
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