Experience suggests that individuals who might choose to make the changes that governments are looking for would describe their behaviour in terms of ‘saving money’ or ‘saving time’ or ‘getting more exercise’. This paper examines these two viewpoints and explores strategies for governments and communities to capitalise on the dichotomous outlooks to develop approaches that are mutually beneficial. In particular it looks at data from Melbourne and Sydney in Australia to suggest that it would be relatively straightforward to implement policies (framed in non-intuitive ways) that would allow people in the community to not only make changes, but to accept much more radical policies than are currently being proffered. In particular, this paper challenges governments to understand that better understanding of the community and people’s high levels of understanding of tradeoffs and personal benefits will mean that is possible to introduce policies that are likely to bring about sustained, long-term voluntary behaviour change and reductions in car use and, in particular, the negative impacts of the car. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E212706.
Abstract