Short car journeys cut by a fifth

BetterPoints programmes can now identify, segment and target regular drivers of short car journeys.

Trials in nine local areas were able to reduce short car journeys by an average of 20 per cent.

The trials also showed that reductions in short car journeys persisted after the campaigns ended.

Research is planned to assess how long reductions in car driving behaviour can be maintained at the optimal level of an intervention.

How it worked

Using the BetterPoints platform, we can accurately identify when programme participants travel in a car and how far they go. For these trials, journey data was monitored over four weeks.

Drivers were then filtered into the Drive Less campaign if they had travelled by car for less than two miles at least twice in one day, and had done this at least once a week.

We then used in-app survey tools to identify those who had the capability and opportunity to change, so rewards and messaging could be targeted.

Over the next eight weeks, members of that cohort could earn an extra 100 BetterPoints, up to twice a day, for a non-car journey of more than a mile.

They also received a schedule of carefully calibrated messages that employed the behaviour change techniques of goal-setting and performance feedback, which encouraged them to continue swapping out shorter car journeys.

Next steps include further work on understanding the barriers that stop some drivers who could change their behaviour from doing so.