If you’re anything like me and my pals, then come the weekend there’s nothing you want to do more than jump in your car and drive as far away from the city as possible, deep into the Scottish Highlands for a weekend of exploring wild places and resetting your batteries after a dull week of 9-5. It is so habitual to use the car, to fire in any outdoor gear that you may or may not need (wetsuit in December? You never know!) that we never stop to think about the negative impacts of our car usage, or of the alternative transport modes on offer.
Our reliance on cars to access greenspaces has a negative impact on the environment and the experiences of locals and visitors alike. Transport is Scotland’s largest contributor to carbon emissions, accounting for 28% of total emissions (Transport Scotland). To meet the Scottish government’s target of reducing car kilometres by 20% by 2030, it is vital that we consider how to facilitate a reduction in those longer car journeys made for recreational purposes.
Encouraging a shift away from private car use does not mean deterring visitors from accessing greenspaces. Instead, raising awareness and promoting the use of public transport will increase the accessibility of the outdoors. Around half of households in the 20% most deprived areas of Scotland have no access to cars, compared to nearly a quarter of households in the rest of Scotland (Sustrans). The gap in car ownership means that there is a significant portion of the Scottish population who may be unable to access the outdoors as they have no car access and the public transport available is somewhat lacking or non-existent in places. Time spent connecting with nature is incredibly beneficial for health and wellbeing, and can be used to encourage a sense of environmental responsibility. It is vital that we maximise the accessibility of outdoor spaces to ensure that people of all socioeconomic background have access to these benefits, and to encourage more environmentally sustainable behaviours amongst Scots.
This summer, I led a pilot study which trialled a social marketing campaign to encourage visitors to the Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park to travel by sustainable transport. Social marketing uses principles from commercial marketing and the social sciences with the aim of changing behaviour for the benefit of society. The findings from this pilot reveal which methods of behaviour change may be the most effective in encouraging people to choose more sustainable travel modes for leisure trips:
1. Compare the negatives of car use to the positives of sustainable transport
None of us head to the hills for a fun day of sitting in traffic on the A82, getting more restless and frustrated by the minute. Taking the train, however, allows you to avoid traffic and gives you time to relax, to enjoy the views, to read a book. Yes, using public transport often takes longer than it would to drive to a location, but by changing the perception of this time as being ‘wasted’ to being an enjoyable part of the adventure, we can start to challenge people’s beliefs and encourage behaviour change.
2. Encourage peer-to-peer messaging
The most engaging campaign content was that which was posted by ‘regular people’, rather than an organisation. We asked three people in their twenties to try a day out by sustainable transport, make an Instagram Reel of their day, and post this from their account. This utilises a social marketing technique called ‘behaviour modelling’, where our creators were shown engaging in the desired behaviour (using sustainable transport). When we see our friends posting on Instagram, it’s like they are making a recommendation without explicitly doing so. Oh, you went to the Hebrides and had a great time? That’s my next adventure sorted. Seeing people who we feel we are similar to engaging in a behaviour is an effective way of inspiring people to think about how they travel and what fun alternatives are out there.
3. Create enjoyable experiences of sustainable transport
To viably encourage a change in travel mode, we need to demonstrate to visitors that they can still engage in the activities that they come to the National Park for (e.g. hiking, swimming, etc.) without using their car. We found that if people had an enjoyable experience of a car-free day out, they were more likely to want to incorporate sustainable transport into their future trips. However, if people had a bad experience, their negative opinion of public transport was reinforced, which may cause more damage than good in encouraging behaviour change. This demonstrates the necessity of quality sustainable transport infrastructure to be in place prior to campaigning. By first improving infrastructure, then creating opportunities (e.g. organised trips and events) for visitors to experience a car-free day out, we can encourage positive behaviour change.
We must begin to move away from the social norm of using the car to access the outdoors, and instead work to find solutions and alternatives. Those solutions might be: Creating and improving infrastructure (e.g. the new 20-bike carriage on ScotRail's Highland Explorer), banning cars from certain areas, or perhaps something else entirely. Working on this project has sparked a few ideas for me that I think could be part of the solution: Creating a sustainable travel event aimed at young people in Scotland to encourage a shift in social norms, and the development of a lift-sharing App aimed at people with a passion for the outdoors. It would take many years and millions of pounds to create a public transport network which spanned the whole of the Highlands and made access to the hills as simple as getting in the car. Reducing the number of cars on the roads by promoting lift-sharing may be a more feasible way forward.
Looking for ways to access your favourite places without a car? Check out these resources:
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