Motivating Energy Efficient Travel: A Community-Based Intervention for Encouraging Biking
Joni Mayer
E. Scott Geller
DOI: 10.2190/C9H7-6ULX-W52K-HW2D
Abstract
By promoting safe, energy-efficient travel modes, environmental problems associated with extensive usage of the automobile can be reduced. The effectiveness of a practical incentive strategy for increasing biking and walking on a community bicycle path was evaluated. During a three-week baseline condition, frequencies of biking and walking were observed at two bikeways in a university setting. Then an incentive intervention with an innovative scheme for preventing cheating or circumvention was implemented at one of these pathways for a three-week period, followed by a three-week withdrawal period. The incentive phase was announced in local newspapers and on distributed handbills. Results indicated that during the incentive period, biking frequency at the experimental bike path was significantly greater than during pre- and post-incentive conditions, relative to observed biking on the control bikeway. Further, the pattern of daily biking frequencies during the incentive phase indicated that the increase in biking was directly related to the administration of certain prompting procedures. The cost effectiveness of the behavioral intervention is discussed with reference to communitywide application.
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