A small 'nudge' is all it takes

First Barack Obama, and now David Cameron are extolling the virtues of nudging people to make decisions that line up with policy. It certainly lines up with the move away from ‘big government’ and big advertising spend, but how does it help with sustainable travel?

Nudge is a book by Thaler and Sunstein that introduces ‘libertarian paternalism’ (or ‘nudging’) as a better way to guide people to make better choices. Being entirely libertarian does not always work, for instance, if we are offered a choice, we often like to be guided by asking for advice, often following what others choose or selecting a default choice (for instance default settings on mobile phones or computer programmes).

At the centre of nudging is understanding how choice architecture works – although we may strive to set a neutral environment for choice, it is almost impossible, and people often seek a paternal influence. Setting the right paternal influence is of huge political and social importance, for instance setting healthy choices is something that we all appear to need a helping hand with.

Nudge also sets out other ways such as incentives, feedback mechanisms and social cues that can be made to guide the way that we all make choices. The book helps explain how many of us make ‘poor’ choices that make little logical sense. Often these choices give a benefit now and are paid back later (the increase in driving  is well correlated with decreases in health) and although they are called choices, we make them with very little thought.

Our research into travel decisions (Personalised Travel Planning in Darlington 2006) shows that only 2% of  decisions made involve any active thought, with the remainder of choices governed by habit or heuristics. Although this has been a source of frustration for those promoting sustainable travel, it is ideal territory for nudging. It also explains why so much of the rational choice advertising has little or no effect.

Nudging has been used frequently in Smarter Choices and is seen to be making a big impact. For example, putting car-share spaces and cycle parking closer to the entrance of buildings can make a significant difference in getting people to cycle and car share more.

There may be no better time to show that simple nudges in travel can cost little but have a far greater effect than infrastructure or advertising campaigns. Although we are now in a climate of less money with many projects being stopped or held up, it is a good time to rethink and engage our creative side and start nudging people to make transport decisions that meet our policy objectives.