Chapter 6: Surveys for Behavioural Experiments: Synthesis of a Workshop

National and local governments and other public sector bodies are increasingly showing interest in adopting voluntary behaviour change (VBC) initiatives, as a means of encouraging people to modify their behaviour patterns in order to contribute to meeting a range of policy objectives (e.g. improving health or reducing CO₂ emissions). In the case of transport, the focus is usually on reducing car use and encouraging the use of more environmentally friendly modes of transport.

A diverse range of initiatives is included under this broad heading, varying both in who they are designed to target (e.g. workers, students, shoppers, households) and the nature of the intervention (e.g. provision of general maps and timetables, marketing materials, customised information). As an important part of such initiatives, there is a need to monitor their impacts in order to establish their effectiveness in changing behaviour, and to identify which kinds of instruments are most effective among different target groups and in particular contexts. However, monitoring the impacts of VBC initiatives is non-trivial and has been quite contentious among researchers and practitioners.