In traffic, many attempts have been made to influence road users’ behaviour in order to prevent accidents and to reduce air pollution and congestion. What motivates people to behave in a certain manner also determines to a large extent how behavioural change can be elicited. Road user behaviours vary from new (planned) behaviour to habitual behaviour. Behaviour change strategies are therefore more or less successful in realizing desired road user behaviour. As it is often unclear which behaviour change strategy will be most effective in influencing road user behaviour, we explore in this paper the hypothesis that habitual road user behaviour can be altered by applying behaviour change strategies in such a way that seizes the underlying motive and therefore enables road users to detect the changes in the traffic situation. Therefore, we designed and conducted a driving simulator experiment that compared three experimental scenarios (media campaign, adapted road design and in-car message) with a baseline scenario to improve rush-hour lane use. Results showed that habitual road user behaviour (merging into traffic) can be changed to new behaviour (using rush-hour lane) by applying behaviour change strategies in such a way that takes the underlying motive of the habitual behaviour into account. Knowing how to apply behaviour change strategies improves the government’s measures’ effectiveness. (Author/publisher) This publication may be accessed by Internet users at: http://www.ictct.org/workshop.php?workshop_nr=26
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