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Commitment, reminders necessary to change attitudes to off-peak travel

SINGAPORE — When it comes to encouraging people to travel during off-peak periods, older commuters were motivated by messages on how much money they could save, whereas younger commuters were spurred by what they thought the “in crowd” was doing. Younger commuters were also more sceptical of messages from government sources.

The Government's free Pre-Peak Travel scheme, launched in June 2013, has drawn moderate response, with the peak hours having only 7 per cent fewer commuters. TODAY file photo

The Government's free Pre-Peak Travel scheme, launched in June 2013, has drawn moderate response, with the peak hours having only 7 per cent fewer commuters. TODAY file photo

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SINGAPORE — When it comes to encouraging people to travel during off-peak periods, older commuters were motivated by messages on how much money they could save, whereas younger commuters were spurred by what they thought the “in crowd” was doing. Younger commuters were also more sceptical of messages from government sources.

And no matter what form the messages take, planning prompts – which nudge people into making a plan – and subsequent reminders are needed to sustain any shift in behaviour.

These are some of the findings from a joint study by the Land Transport Authority and Harvard Behavioural Insights Group, which were shared by Dr Daniel Lim, associate consultant in the Infocomm Development Authority’s (IDA) Government Analytics team. Dr Lim had worked on the study when he was a Phd student at Harvard.

Sharing these findings at the Ministry of National Development’s (MND) Urban Sustainability R&D Congress today (July 10), Dr Lim said the study was commissioned to look at how to encourage people to take up off-peak travel. 

The Government’s Free Pre-Peak Travel scheme, which was rolled out in June 2013, has drawn moderate response, with the peak hours having just 7 per cent fewer commuters. The authorities had hoped for a 10 to 20 per cent reduction. The scheme has been extended until June 30 next year.

Dr Lim and his team recruited about 4,500 people for their experiment. Participants received eight different kinds of messaging in poster form — from financial to emotional motivations — over a span of eight weeks, and were told to commit to a plan to travel during off-peak periods on two days on the following week. 

“From what we have seen so far, it appears that the messages do work, but they are not sustainable over time. When there is no commitment for them to make that plan, they revert to their normal behaviour,” said Dr Lim. 

If they received reminders — which Dr Lim said could be done via mobile applications — they sustained the behaviour at least one week after the experiment.

“(The) Government spends a lot of time thinking about how to craft the message … and there is no follow up. The Government has to go beyond simple messaging and try to help people to shift their behaviour. And with the use of mobile applications today, we can … get reminders and … help people follow through with what they intend to do,” he said.

CORRECTION:  An earlier version of this article reported the joint study by the Land Transport Authority and Harvard Behavioural Insights Group showed that reminders are needed to sustain any shift in travel behaviour. This is incorrect. Planning prompts, which nudge people into making a plan, are what sustain a shift in behaviour. We apologise for the error.

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