Business challenge
Our client (a county council) wanted to better understand the barriers to active travel amongst their residents, and through what messaging they can encourage different groups to increase their levels of walking and cycling as part of their day-to-day journeys.
What we did
We conducted a multi-stage approach, consisting of:
- Deliberative event: A large event with county residents to discuss active travel and their behaviour and opinions. The group was split into 4 smaller groups (based on groups of interest) for more focussed discussions, and then brought back together. Here we also introduced the EAST framework as a Behaviour Science angle to encouraging behaviour.
- Message optimisation workshop: We then worked alongside the client to brainstorm messaging ideas based on the findings from the deliberative event and the EAST results.
- Quantitative online survey: A quantitative survey was then run with a larger sample to test the messaging and explore current travel behaviours.
Throughout the research we made sure to include respondents who were under-represented amongst active travel users:
- Females
- Older people
- Families with young children
- People from ethnic minority groups
- Those with low levels of physical activity
- Those living with a disability or poor physical health
- From deprived areas
This ensured the research was inclusive, taking into account the different types of residents within the county.
Outcome
Through conducting this research we were able to provide the client with clear information on the ideal messaging campaign to reach the most residents (analysed through TURF analysis). We advised on the top 5 messages to launch, and through what channels would be most effective to the different groups within the council.